Gut Feeling
by Super Chocolate Bear
Summary: Dark events start unfolding in Central City, and Flash is the prime suspect. Just how far will blind faith and friendship go?
1. A Conundrum

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

(A/N: Post 'Destroyer', so spoilers ahoy!)

_**Gut Feeling**_

**_Chapter One: A Conundrum_**

The room seemed larger than he had thought it would. Maybe he was, on some level, expecting more members of the League to be present at the event. On a subconscious level, of course. He knew he wasn't exactly popular with some members; he was considered a delusional yet harmless kook on the same level as the Question by some, yet he was eyed suspiciously and even feared by others.

But then again, he couldn't have been _that _unpopular. They did ask him to join the Justice League, after all. When he received the invitation, he couldn't help but wonder whose idea it was to bring him in.

Shayera, perhaps?

That didn't seem likely to him then, and seeing her cautionary response to his entry, it didn't seem likely to him _now._

Green Lantern?

…Perhaps not.

He had been left quite perplexed by that question. Who on the League would think enough of him to recommend he be brought on board? A cursory glance across the crowd answered his question; Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E. He had fought alongside them during the Apokolips invasion. They had saved each others backs on numerous occasions during the battle, and now it seemed he was being rewarded. Not that he did it for the recognition. First and foremost, Carter Hall, also known as Hawkman, was a hero.

"…for your much appreciated assistance during the Apokolips invasion, and for the independent work you've done against crime in Midway City, we, the Justice League, would like to welcome you into our ranks."

Superman raised his glass. "Welcome to the League, Hawkman."

The ten or so guests in the room raised their glasses, a general 'hear hear' spreading through the crowd. Carter just smiled and nodded, unsure of how to take such praise.

"Thank you."

Green Arrow grinned. "Don't thank us yet, pal; just wait until you've gone on a mission with the Creeper. _Then _we'll see how thankful you are."

A low chuckle spread through the crowd, and again, Carter just smiled, not quite sure how to deal with the friendly ribbing. He wasn't really much of a funny man himself. He wasn't particularly dead serious, either, but he certainly wasn't the wisecracking, happy-go-lucky type. He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and looked over at Superman.

"Don't worry about it. You might find this all a bit daunting at first, but you'll get used to it."

Carter sighed. "I have to admit, this is all a little bit overwhelming."

The Man of Steel shrugged, an easy smile on his face. "It always is to begin with. When I made my first speech to the League, I could swear I would trip up on the way up to the podium or forget what to say. But if there's one thing you can say about the League, it's that they'll always welcome you with open arms."

Carter nodded courteously. "Thank you."

"Well, I've got some League business to attend to, so I'll have to be off. I'll see you later, I'm sure."

The Man of Steel sipped down the last of his orange juice and put the glass down the on the table before moving away.

Green Arrow made his way over. "Hey, buddy. Don't worry yourself too much about what I said back there. I was just kidding around."

"To be honest, I'm not sure who the Creeper is, so the joke might have fallen flat for me."

The archer's smile fell. "Oh. Well. Big grin, yellow skin, wears nothing but underpants, gloves, boots and a weird carpet thing around his neck. Really can't miss him."

"I'd hope not, otherwise I might need my eyes checked," Carter said, a small quirk of a smile on his face.

Arrow smiled. "Say… have you ever played poker?"

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Shayera tried not to stare at Carter as he and Arrow conversed. It seemed such an odd fit, having Hawkman in the League. She had relegated him as something that existed outside of this realm. Now she would have to see him every day. She felt the presence of someone beside her, and looked over to see John Stewart, sipping at a glass of orange juice.

"I take it this was your idea?" he said, trying his best to sound nonchalant. Shayera hid her smile. He never was very good at hiding his feelings.

"Wasn't me," she said innocently. "Was it you?"

"Ah, no. Not that I don't like him-"

"Of course."

"-but, I never really thought of him and the League as being in the same, uh… league." He closed his eyes and grumbled. "That was a Wally joke, wasn't it?"

Shayera smiled. "Just a little."

"Hey, it's not like you haven't done your fair share."

"When?" Shayera responded challengingly.

"Well, there was that one time on that Alpha Centauri moon…"

"I _knew _you'd throw that back at me! That was an accident," she said, smiling.

John paused, and seemed ready to continue talking, when something flashed across his eyes, and his expression changed as though he had just realised something. Shayera felt the same sudden change in herself as well, and an awkward silence spread itself over the two like a thick fog, blinding them to each other.

"So… um… I hear that Wally's been spending less time at the Tower."

Shayera paused for a moment. "Yeah. He's been… busy, I hear."

"Do you know what with?"

Shayera shook her head. "I guess we could ask him at the meeting we've got-" she looked up at the clock, and her eyes widened, "-right now."

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Batman, Superman, J'onn and Wonder Woman looked up at John and Shayera as they came in, equally irked looks on their faces. It was strange for John to see J'onn showing such emotions, but since his time away travelling the world, the Martian had grown by leaps and bounds as far as his emotional welfare was concerned. John was happy for him, but that didn't mean he sometimes wished for the more balanced J'onn J'onnz to come back.

"Sorry we're late," Shayera said, though she didn't bother coming up with an excuse. Superman was at the same gathering they were, and he had still managed to get to the meeting on time.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Batman said dangerously, "it's not like you're the only ones."

John cocked an eyebrow. "He's late again?"

The Dark Knight nodded, and John couldn't help but sigh as he sat down. Wally had been becoming increasingly tardy when it came to League meetings, shifts, missions, or anything League related in general. It wasn't as though he were neglecting the Flash side of his life, however; John recently saw a newscast of Flash and Kid Flash fighting the recently escaped Weather Wizard. The criminal had escaped from the battle, but at least Wally was still on the streets of Central City.

"So," Diana began cautiously, "how's our new recruit finding things here?"

Batman's expression remained stony, but John had spent enough time around him to know that the Dark Knight didn't approve of Hawkman's addition to their ranks. John still wasn't sure how he felt about it himself.

Superman's smile did nothing to improve Batman's dour expression.

"He's a bit overwhelmed by the scale of everything," Clark said, his voice reflecting how many times others had come to him with similar comments. "But I think he'll get used to it pretty quickly." He looked over at J'onn. "He's got an appointment with you, doesn't he?"

J'onn nodded solemnly. "At his own request," he replied. The slightly surprised look on Shayera's face reflected John's response well.

"He asked?"

The Martian shrugged. Such a nonchalant human gesture seemed odd on the usually stoic alien. "It's not as though he doesn't realise how big a threat Shadow Thief is."

"Yet another reason why we shouldn't have jumped to recruit him," Batman added, and John found himself agreeing.

"He has a point," the Lantern said, leaning forward on his arms. "Wouldn't it be a better idea to make sure Shadow Thief is gone before we start sending this guy out on missions?"

J'onn seemed to consider this for a moment, and then slowly blinked in a calm, almost sloth-like motion. "I've scanned his mind; Shadow Thief is well under control."

Batman thinned his eyes. "But how much is 'well under control'?"

"As much as you have control over your darkest desires," J'onn replied easily, the newly acquired human twang in his voice giving more attitude to the statement than the Martian probably intended.

The doors to the conference room opened, and the Flash hurried through, coming to a halt in front of his chair. "Sorry I'm late," he gasped.

John cocked an eyebrow. "What kept you?"

Wally shrugged. "Stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Just stuff; don't worry about it," he said quickly, waving a dismissive hand as he went to sit in his chair. John exchanged glances with Shayera and Superman. Wally, seeing this quick exchange, stopped moving in mid-sit.

"Something wrong?"

Superman took a breath. "Wally… you've been late for the past six or so meetings-"

"Not to mention your shifts," Shayera added.

"-and we're just wondering if anything's wrong."

The speedster sat down in his chair, an easy grin on his face. "Nothing wrong. Most _definitely _nothing wrong. Just some Wally West stuff I had to take care of."

The Man of Steel seemed ready to reply, but then paused for a moment. His gaze lingered on the speedster for a few moments longer before he decided to sit back down.

John eyed his friend sceptically. What was Wally doing that would constantly make him late for League business? He was usually the most vigilant of all of them when it came to superhero duties. Although that was usually because he didn't have anything else to do.

_Maybe he's finally found a hobby._

"All right," Clark began, bringing John out of his reverie. "Let's get down to business. Batman?"

The Dark Knight nodded, standing up with a stack of papers. If he didn't know he'd pay for it later, John would have groaned.

_Please… not more charts._

Batman walked around each of them, dropping stapled together stacks of paper in front of each of them as he went.

"These are the statistics for some of the…"

He trailed off as he reached Wally, who wasn't paying the slightest jot of attention to Batman. Instead, he had his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling with a big goofy grin spread across his face.

"Flash…" he growled quietly.

No response.

"Flash."

Still no response.

"FLASH!"

The Scarlet Speedster sprang back to reality. "Huh? Wha?"

Batman sighed and handed over the charts.

A troubled look crossed Wally's face. "Oh. Thanks," he mumbled sarcastically.

John chuckled out loud, but quickly changed the chuckle into a throat in desperate need of clearing. Batman slammed his paper down on the table a little harder than he needed to.

"Now, these- Flash!"

"What, what? I'm here, I'm listening!"

"Then look _at _me instead of _past _me."

"Okay, okay, geez…"

John sighed. It was going to be a long meeting.

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Somehow Hawkman knew it was going to be a long day. From the moment he woke up and his helmet felt too tight on his head, he knew it was going to be one of those days. One of those days where everything feels overly tiresome and tedious. Although he couldn't really comment on how tiresome and tedious working with the League was; he had only worked with them for a week or so.

He landed on the rooftop of the Midway City Museum, having finished his morning patrol of the city. The clock tower of the city chimed for twelve o'clock, and he promptly put his hand to his ear piece, which still felt strange and obtrusive.

"This is Hawkman. One for transport."

Yet another thing he wasn't yet used to; teleporting. The first time they had done it, he had yelped out loud, much to his embarrassment. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, who had been with him at the time, had pretended not to notice. It didn't stop Carter from being embarrassed, though.

His shift began at 12:30, but he always liked to be early for appointments, just in case something unforeseen happened. Not that anything ever did. But when the League was concerned, Hall had learnt the hard way to be prepared for anything. Missions would take unexpected twists during the course, and Carter was left wondering just what the hell had happened. It didn't help that the second villain he was sent up against was a bored Circe, who had taken a liking to him, or at least, his body. He still remembered how embarrassing that felt, her casting a spell on him so that he would…

Well, suffice to say, Carter wasn't overly pleased with that mission.

"Ah. Hawkman. Glad to see you're here."

Hawkman looked up at the balcony of the Watchtower and saw Mr Terrific looking down at him. With a beat of his wings, Carter was sent up into the air, elegantly making his way up to the League co-ordinator.

"I know your shift doesn't start for another half an hour, but would you mind filling in at the Metro Tower? Flash is late for monitor duty, and Shayera had to duck out on a mission."

Carter paused for a moment. "Uh… I wouldn't really know what to do."

"Your aptitude test showed that you can handle it. I'll guide you through it via the COM link if you have any problems." He paused as he saw Carter's reluctant expression. "You'd have to learn someday."

"W… uh, sure."

His mouth suddenly feeling quite dry, Carter made his way back down to the teleporter pad. Allowing a brief moment's hesitation, he nodded at the teleporter controller. He blew out a breath as the teleporter sent him down to Metropolis.

_Most definitely going to be a long day._

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Carter smiled and nodded at Dr Light as she stepped down from the teleporter pad. The blink-and-he'd-miss-it glance she cast down his chest made him redden slightly, and he quickly got back to work at the control panel.

"You're new here, right? Hawkman, isn't it?"

He paused. "Yes."

"Any relation to Hawkgirl?"

"I… don't believe she likes to be called that anymore."

Dr Light shrugged. "Shayera, then. Any relation?"

"Ah, no, I'm afraid not."

The scientist cocked an eyebrow. "Afraid? Why?"

"Um… perhaps I phrased that wrong," he replied, a nervous smile playing across his lips.

"I haven't seen you here before now. Mr Terrific transfer you?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm just here while Shayera is away on a mission."

"Where's Flash?"

"Late."

"Ah."

An eyebrow rose beneath his helmet. "You say that like it happens frequently."

She shrugged. "Well, it's only recently, but he's been late for quite a few of his shifts." She cocked a suggestive eyebrow. "Why? You thinking of replacing him?"

"I, uh… no, not really, no," he said, nervously tugging on his earlobe.

"Oh. Shame." She walked past him and to the doors, which slid open obligingly. "I'll see you around, I'm sure."

"Uh, yes. Yes, of course. Goodbye."

The doors closed, and Carter let out a long breath of relief.

_You know, if you really were a reincarnated King, you'd think you'd be smoother around women. Especially the…_

He looked over at the closed doors.

…_more aggressive ones._

The doors slid open again, and Carter struggled not to jump when a powerful gust of wind nearly blew his helmet off.

"Uh…"

Hawkman turned to see the Flash standing behind him, a confused expression wrinkling his mask.

"You're not Shayera."

"Ah, no. She's on a mission."

"Right. And you're here… why?"

Carter suddenly felt slightly awkward. "Well, Mr Terrific… that is, he sent me to fill in."

"Oh." Flash paused. "Why?"

"You were… late."

"Late! This isn't late! This is-" the speedster looked up at the clock. "Wow, that's pretty damn late," he muttered, though more to himself than anyone else. He turned back to Hawkman, an apologetic look on his face.

"Well… sorry if I caused any trouble."

"Not at all."

Flash nodded, seemingly glad to have the pleasantries out of the way. "Well, as long as you're here, you can fill in for Shayera while she's out."

"But I'm supposed to be going on a mission with Green Lantern."

Flash waved a dismissive hand. "Pffft. GL's a puppy. Don't worry about what he tells you to do."

"That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?"

"Some would say it's irresponsible to leave me alone in charge of the Metro Tower."

Carter opened his mouth, and then closed it again. "I see."

An easy grin spread across Flash's face, and he slapped Carter on the shoulder. "There ya go. I'm just gonna get something to eat. You want a snack or anything?"

"No-" there was a blur of red and another gust of wind as Flash disappeared, and reappeared holding a bag of potato chips and a can of soda.

"-thank you," Carter finished, blinking in disbelief at the show of speed.

The Scarlet Speedster made his way over to the table behind the control panel and sat down on the chair, putting his feet up on the table's transparent surface.

"So," Flash said, his voice muffled by a mouthful of chips. "Anything interesting happen yet?"

"Um…" Hawkman shook his head and got back to his work at the control panel. "Dr Light finished her mission in Zimbabwe, and Steel, Fire and Ice gave an update on how they're doing in Coast City. They'll be about an hour later than they originally planned."

"Trouble?" Flash said, some concern seeping into his voice, though his physicality didn't change.

"No, there's just a lot more rubble to clear than they realised. And some of the locals are being… stubborn."

"Stubborn?" the speedster responded, some amusement in his voice.

"Well… Fire had a far more…um… descriptive… word."

"Yeah, she's got a mouth on her when she's angry, all right," he said, emptying some chips into his mouth from his hand. "So," Flash continued, munching away on the chips, "what's the deal with you and Shayera?"

Carter paused at the control panel. "I… don't think she'd appreciate me talking to you about it."

"Ah, c'mon. Shayera's already talked to me about some of it."

"She has?" Carter asked, turning his head slightly. "Did she… say anything about me?"

Flash shook his head. "Nuh-uh; two way street," he said, pointing to Carter and then himself.

Hawkman sighed. "We… used to know each other."

"Yeah? Like when?" the speedster enquired, his voice having an almost childlike curiosity to it.

"It was…" he paused, considering the face of his companion. "Well. I'm sure you already know," Carter said simply, getting back to his work.

He heard the Flash's munching grind to a halt behind him as he felt the speedster's curious gaze on the back of his head.

"How'd you get in the League? Did someone invite you, or…"

"It was Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E. I helped them fight off some of Darkseid's forces during the Apokolips invasion."

"Oh, _right…_"

Hawkman turned, his curiosity piqued by the Flash's tone of voice. "What?"

"Well, I was just wondering who would invite you in. I mean, no offence or anything, but I doubt Shayera or Bats would have done it."

"Or Green Lantern, for that matter."

"I dunno… I don't think GL would care that much," Flash replied.

"Well, I just thought… since he and Shayera are together…"

"GL and Shayera aren't together. He's with Vixen," Flash said instantly, then quickly slapped his hand over his mouth.

"They're not together?"

Flash shook his head vehemently. "Nonono! I didn't say anything! I didn't mean to say anything, I mean-" the doors to the room opened behind him, and Shayera stepped through. The speedster looked back at him. "Uh, look- I didn't just tell you that, okay?"

"Hawkman? Why are you…?" Shayera cocked an eyebrow at the pleading look on Flash's face, and the awkward look on Carter's. "What has he told you?" she asked threateningly, her inquisitive expression quickly giving way to a death glare. The speedster shrunk slightly.

Carter paused and looked from one to the other, and then back again. "…nothing, Shayera. Well, nothing important."

Flash, vindicated, grew back to his original size, his hands on his hips and a Flash grin on his face.

Hawkman walked past Shayera with a polite smile and went to the teleporter pad. "One for the Watchtower, please."

Shayera, still looking at Flash suspiciously, went over to the control panel and activated the teleporter, engulfing him in a shaft of white-blue light. As soon as Hawkman had faded from view, Shayera turned and whacked Flash in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For whatever you said to him, big mouth."

"I didn't say anything."

"Right."

"I didn't!"

Shayera stared at him a little longer before returning to the control panel. Letting out a breath of relief as discreetly as he could, Flash walked back to the table and sat down, opening the can of soda. Just as he was about to bring it to his lips, he paused.

"You want some?"

"No thanks."

He shrugged and chugged it.

"So," he said, stopping himself to belch loudly. "How was the mission?"

"Watch your manners. It was fine. And I wouldn't call it a mission, exactly. Public relations meeting."

Flash cocked an eyebrow. She sighed.

"Fine, Metropolis Orphanage."

"What? Why're you embarrassed about that?"

"I don't know…"

"Believe me, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, Shayera. I think it's pretty sweet."

"_That's _why."

"What?"

"When _you _say that _I'm _being sweet, I know I'm doing something wrong."

"Hey - that's cruel and unnecessary."

Shayera allowed a small smile, and she could practically feel Flash's grin.

"So why are so chipper?" she asked, continuing her work as she spoke.

"'Chipper'?"

"Yes, 'chipper'. As in, happier than usual."

"I wouldn't say I'm 'chipper', guv'nor."

"Look, it's just a word."

"Yeah, but… 'chipper'?"

"What's wrong with 'chipper'?"

"Nothing, it's just… 'chipper'…"

"Never mind then. Why are you happier than usual?"

"Maybe I'm just in a good mood."

"Wally, you were daydreaming in a meeting. The last time I saw you do anything like that…" she paused, and an evil grin spread across her face. "Oh, I _see."_

"What?"

She turned, the evil smile making Flash squirm in his seat uncomfortably.

"You've got a girlfriend…" she said in a singsong-y voice, making Flash wince.

"Aw, shut up," he mumbled.

Shayera put her hands on her hips triumphantly. "Ha! You do, don't you?"

"No…" he paused. "Well, okay, maybe."

"Who is it? Anyone I know?"

"No…" he paused. "Well, okay, you _might _have heard of her, but I doubt it."

"_Heard _of her? Why, is she famous?"

"In her own way, I guess."

Shayera thought for a moment, looking down to her right in thought. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers. "It's that reporter woman, isn't it? The one who you saved at the Flash Museum."

The Scarlet Speedster was silent again for a few moments, keeping his gaze away from Shayera's. "Bats talks too much…"

"It is, isn't it? I don't believe it. You and a reporter."

"Hey, what's wrong with a reporter?"

"Nothing. They just seem a bit too… smart for you, is all."

"Gee, thanks."

"You know what I mean."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that; she's not smart at all." Flash frowned for a moment. "Wait, that didn't come out right."

Shayera laughed. "Never mind, I know what you mean." She turned and got back to the control panel. "So… how long have you been seeing her?"

"Uh…" Flash rubbed the back of his neck. "About a month now."

"And you're only just telling me now?"

"What? I was gonna tell you when I was ready."

"Which would have been… when?"

"Some… time… soon…" he replied, trailing off.

Shayera grinned. "Right. And does she know that you're…"

"Ah, no, not yet."

"Are you planning on it?"

"I'm gonna see where it goes, first. If it gets serious, then… yeah, probably."

"Do you think it's going to get serious?"

"I dunno… can we not talk about this?"

Shayera put her hands up in surrender. "All right, all right…" Her control panel beeped, and she pushed the appropriate button. "And besides, you'd better get going; there's a bank robbery going down in Central City."

"I'm on it," Flash said, heading to the teleporter pad.

"And by the way? It was Orion who told me," Shayera said, grinning.

Flash didn't even have a chance to reply before she teleported him away.

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(A/N: Well, there you have it.

Next chapter: The League are still concerned about the Flash's constant absences, but being too occupied around the world to check up on him, they decide to send someone else to keep an eye on him; Hawkman…

Reviews, if you please.)


	2. Building Blocks

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Chapter Two: Building Blocks**_

"Back off! Back off right now!"

The several police officers stood in front of him glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes, as if verifying that the others were doing the same as them. Slowly, the police officers stepped back, although they still kept their guns trained on the criminal.

"Now put the guns down and kick them over here!"

They paused, and he gripped the knife in his hand tighter, roughly grabbing his hostage's hair and pulling it back, exposing her vulnerable neck.

"I said drop your guns and kick them over here!"

Reluctantly and slowly, the police officers lowered their weapons, letting them clatter to the floor.

"Put your hands behind your head and kick the guns over here!"

They did as they were told, each of them wracking their brains for possible courses of action as they glared daggers at the man.

He smirked. "All right, I'm getting out of here. Anyone tries and stops me, you know what happens."

He slowly backed away, his curly hair waving in the wind as the front doors of the shopping mall opened.

As soon as he stepped outside, he felt another strong gust of wind, much more powerful than the wind that had previously been brushing against him inoffensively. He blinked as he felt something odd about his hand. Looking down, he realised that the knife he was once holding to the woman's throat was now gone. He whipped his head back up.

"Oh, crap."

There was another gust of wind, this time taking the woman with her. The man closed his eyes and braced himself as there was another gust of wind, this time knocking him unconscious as a superspeed punch collided with his jaw.

The Flash came to a halt and put his hands on his hips, the usual Flash grin on his lips. The police officers ran out of the building, the relief on their faces evident as they saw the Flash.

"Oh, Flash. Thank God." The officer looked around, concern knotting her features. "Is the hostage all right?"

"Yeah; I just dropped her off around the corner."

The other two officers were now cuffing the criminal. "Glad you could help out," the one on the left said, a genuine smile on his face.

"Sorry I didn't do something sooner, but I thought it'd be better to wait until he was out in the open."

"You made the right move."

Flash nodded in thanks. "Well, you guys seem to have this under control, so I'll be going. Keep up the good work, guys."

He gave a quick salute and sped away, all the while grinning inanely at the farewell wishes the officers shot his way as they waved.

He turned the corner and sped off down the street, looking up at the digital clock in the city center as he passed through.

_6:05._

He had until 7:00 before he had his date with Linda. He could go home, put on some loud 70s hip hop, and get ready. Feeling lighter than air at the thought, he sped off down the street once again, hopping up in the air and clicking his heels together before he set off for once last patrol.

As the citizens of Central City waved and cheered him as he ran by, Wally West only had one thought;

_I love this city._

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_I love this city._

Carter Hall sighed as he waited for the traffic to move. At this point, it didn't matter in which direction. Right now, Carter didn't care. All he knew was that he had finished his work at the Museum earlier than usual, and he was looking forward to putting his feet up and curling up with a good book. At least, until his evening League shift began.

As it was, he was going to be lucky if he even had time to change. He silently hoped that the League waited for his confirmation before they teleported him up; Carter personally couldn't think of anything more unpleasant that being half dressed on the teleporter pad in front of the entire League.

Of course, there were some League members who wouldn't mind seeing that at all…

Carter sighed wearily at the thought. From his first official day with the League, the women (the ones who weren't put off by his reputation as a stalker) had practically attacked him. It wasn't as if he wasn't flattered (or tempted, for that matter), but it was making him feel uncomfortable. He didn't even realise he was _that _attractive. If anything, he assumed the fearsome hawk helmet would _deter _women rather than _encourage_ them.

Another sigh transformed itself into a mighty yawn. The archaeologist looked at his watch disinterestedly.

_6:05._

_At least I'm not late for my shift._

He glanced up at the unchanging red of the traffic lights ahead of him.

_Yet..._

He reached down and switched on the car radio, hoping to find something to occupy his mind. The traffic lights changed, and Carter sighed in relief.

_Maybe I'll be able to get some relaxation time after all._

His ears parked up as he heard something being transmitted over the radio.

"…_in pursuit of several suspects who have commandeered a vehicle, heading on to 3rd. We will keep you posted as more news develops."_

Carter sighed and pulled into a parking space at the side of the road. He got out of the car and picked up his briefcase, where he kept his axe and folded wings. Blue eyes gave pause at the parking meter, and he delved into his pockets, looking for some change. Finding none, he looked around, checking for any parking attendants. He backed away from the car carefully, still keeping a wary eye, and ran into a nearby alleyway.

Hawkman flew from the other side of the alleyway shortly after, heading for 3rd.

Quickly surmising the situation from the sky, Hawkman shot down towards the offending vehicle, taking note of the masked criminal leaning out of the passenger seat window with a shotgun, blasting away at the pursuing police.

Swinging down to come parallel above the car, he brought back his axe and brought it down on the gun, knocking it from the criminal's hands.

The criminal looked up with a surprised yelp, his eyes widening as the identity of his assailant registered.

Carter once again swung his axe, this time smashing through the sunroof of the car. Reaching in with his other arm, he pulled out the passenger criminal by the cuff of his shirt and easily tossed him away, timing the throw so he landed in an open dumpster.

Carter brought his attention back down to the driver, who had since pulled out a handgun. Carter quickly moved to his left so that he was diagonally above the driver's window. He brought back his axe and smashed it through the window, grabbing onto the criminal with his other arm and yanking him out. The car skidded uncontrollably down the road, eventually slowing to a halt in the middle of the street.

Smiling as the police cars pulled up, Carter released the criminal from his vicelike grip as the officers came to collect him.

"There you go, officers."

"Uh… thank you, um… Hawk… man."

Although the tone of his voice and his expression irked him slightly, Carter didn't bother doing anything about it. He knew why the public of Midway City were being so slow to take to him; he bore more than a passing resemblance to the leader of the Thanagarian invasion, Hro Talak.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?"

Carter looked over to see a slightly more irate police officer glaring at him.

"I'm… sorry?"

"Damn right, you should be sorry. Letting that car go careening out of control down the street like that! Someone could have been killed!"

"I checked before I pulled him out; there was no-one there."

"But did you know that for certain? What if some kid came running out of nowhere and into the street? Then what would you have done, ya filthy hawk?"

Carter flinched at the ferocity of the words, and was grateful when the arresting officer put a soothing hand on the shoulder of Carter's detractor.

"C'mon Phil, leave it alone."

With a lingering glare at Carter, the police officer turned and stormed back to the car. Carter stood still for a moment, before finally shaking himself out of his reverie and leaping into the air, heading back to where had had left his clothes and car.

A few minutes later, Carter stepped out of the alleyway, checking his watch.

_6: 35. I guess I'm not going to have as much time as I thought._

As he was about to get into his car, he noticed something on the windshield. He picked up the piece of paper and grimaced. It was a parking ticket. He turned on the ignition.

"At least things can't get any worse…" he muttered under his breath.

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_All things considered, this could be a lot worse._

Wally tried his utmost to hide his goofy grin. He wasn't even sure what Linda was talking about, only that she seemed to move as gracefully as an angel. He thought about Shayera for a brief moment.

_Well, maybe not as graceful as an angel._

"…and, you know me, I was happy enough to just… Wally?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you listening?"

"Mm- yeah. Uh, yeah, yeah."

"Really?" she said, a wry smile crossing her face. "What did I just say?"

"Uh… something… nice about me?"

She laughed, and his goofy grin escaped for a brief moment before he put it back under wraps.

"Do you do that a lot?" Linda asked.

"What?"

"Drift off while your date's talking to you?"

"Well… sometimes. It depends on the person," he said, all the while keeping his eyes locked on hers.

"I guess that's something I'll have to work on," she replied, smiling as she got back to her food.

Wally's eyebrows shot up at the remark, but he quickly pushed them back down again, trying his utmost to remain calm. The fact that his heart had leapt into his throat didn't help.

"So," he managed, struggling to keep his voice level, "you were saying?"

She cocked an amused eyebrow. "Going to listen this time?"

Wally put up his right hand and put his left on his chest. "I swear."

Linda eyed him for a moment before continuing with her story. "Well, the make-up people were late, and we ended up having to wait for them. But the Mayor's a busy lady, so we couldn't exactly keep her waiting. So-" she paused as she spotted something on Wally's hand. "Is that a Flash ring?"

"Uh… yeah," he said faux-sheepishly, hoping he would come across as a fanboy rather than a disguised superhero.

"Where'd you get it?" she asked, leaning in for a closer look.

"Uh… Flash Museum gift shop."

"Really? I didn't see any there…" she eyed him suspiciously. "You made it, didn't you?"

"No…"

"Oh, you so did. I had no idea you were a Flash fan."

"He's okay," Wally said, shrugging. He held up the ring so she could get a better look at it. "It was a gift from my uncle, and _he's_ a Flash fan, so…"

She nodded, transfixed by the ring. "Is it important to you?"

"It's kind of a good luck charm."

"Does it work?"

"Well… I was wearing it at that press conference, so I'd say it works pretty well," he said, smiling.

She returned the smile. "I wouldn't call backing into me and spilling cappuccino's on yourself good luck."

"I guess not."

A comfortable silence fell upon them as they gazed into each other's eyes. Wally found it difficult to work up the nerve to break the wonderful moment and get back to his food.

"So," he said, his face reddening slightly. "How long have you been into journalism?" he asked, making a mental note to kick himself later for interrupting the moment.

Linda paused for moment, a disappointed look flashing across her face before she too got back to her meal. "Well, I sort of fell into it, I guess. I'd always found that kind of thing interesting, so I went to college, studied journalism, that sort of thing. Got a job with a newspaper, and that led to Central City TV."

"Have you always lived here?"

"Oh yeah. Central City girl, through and through."

Wally smiled. _A girl after my own heart._

Linda raised her eyebrows interestedly. "And you? How did you get into…" she thought for a moment. "Actually, you haven't told me what you do."

"I'm with the Central City CSI."

She nodded, impressed. "How'd you get into that?"

"Through my uncle, I guess. He was a police scientist before I was even born. I got into mechanics and stuff at first-"

"Like car mechanics?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he said, nodding.

A glint passed over her dark eyes, but it was gone so quickly Wally couldn't tell if it was something good.

"And then?" she asked, leaning forward and resting her head on her hand.

"Well…" Wally began, before stopping. Suddenly finding his mouth was quite dry, he took a sip of the wine they had ordered before continuing. "I was applying for an apprenticeship job with the CSI, and I eventually got it after I helped some cops out with a case."

She cocked an eyebrow. "You helped out the cops? Any case I might know?"

"Uh… the Brakenbury murders?"

Her eyes widened. "No way. _You're _the mechanic who spotted the hair in the engine of the car?"

Wally shrugged modestly. "Well…"

"No wonder your name seemed so familiar."

"I hope you aren't going out with me just for the fame factor," Wally joked.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm here for completely different reasons," she replied, smiling suggestively as she placed her knife and fork on her plate and dabbed her mouth with the napkin.

Wally couldn't help but grin.

_What a great day._

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carter sat down in the chair with a groan.

_What a lousy day._

His dulled eyes lit up slightly as he saw the food on the tray before him. Even though the commissary food reminded him of school dinners, he was finding it difficult to care right now. After the exhausting day he had had, he was more than willing to put up with some slightly lumpy mashed potatoes.

He put the book down on the table beside the tray, opened it at the bookmarked page, and began reading as he gratefully munched away at his food.

The sound of chair being pulled away from the table brought his attention up to Dr Light, who was taking the seat opposite him. Carter politely smiled and got back to his reading.

"What are you reading?" she asked curiously.

_Easy Carter. She's just asking. No need to be rude._

"A book on the Inuit tribes of the Yukon. It's quite fascinating reading."

"Really…" she asked, her tone of voice indicating just how much interest she really had in the book. "Do you read a lot?"

"When time allows, I like to enjoy some peace and quiet with a good book, yes."

Carter inwardly winced. _Think you were obvious enough there, Hall?_

Dr Light didn't seem to take his less than subtle hint. "What about TV? Not your thing?"

"Oh, no, I have a television. I just prefer to read, particularly before I go to sleep."

She cocked an eyebrow. "You like to read in bed, do you?"

"Oh, yes. It's quite relaxing, most of the-" Carter stopped himself as he realised what Dr Light was thinking. His cheeks went red beneath his helmet. "Yes, well… I'll just…" He cleared his throat and got back to his reading.

Dr Light remained, not touching her food. Carter paused, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to face her.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

She blinked before looking down at the food. "Oh… uh, yes," she said, picking up her knife and fork. The announcement chime sounded.

"_Dr Light and Green Lantern, please report to the bridge."_

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "So much for lunch…" she murmured, though Carter wasn't sure whether she was referring to the food or… something else.

He felt his cheeks heat up at the thought.

"I'll see you later," she said, smiling as she went. Carter offered a small wave and sighed contentedly before getting back to his book.

"Hey, are you the new guy?"

Carter closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath through his nose. "Yes." He looked over to see two teenagers stood beside him, one wearing a dark blue trench coat, the other wearing what looked like skating gear.

"Hi," the one on the left said. "I'm Static, and this is…" he paused, as though waiting for his companion to introduce himself. He looked over and saw his friend staring at Fire as she strolled past.

Static cleared his throat loudly and nudged him in the arm. "And this is…" he said again, though this time more forcefully.

"Oh. Uh, Gear," he said, extending his hand. Carter took it and shook the hand.

"Mind if we sit down?" Static asked, and Carter paused for moment. He looked over at his book, and then at the two teenagers stood next to his table. Inwardly sighing, he closed his book.

"Please."

Static sat down opposite Carter, and Gear next to his friend. "I can't tell you how great it is to have another new guy around here. The last new guy we had was…"

"Captain Marvel," Gear added, and Static nodded.

"Yeah, and that didn't turn out too well."

"Well I uh… hope I'll be around longer than that."

"Yeah, and without having to get beat up by Superman, too," Gear joked.

Static looked over at him with a deadpan expression, shaking his head. Gear shrunk slightly.

"Don't mind Gear. He's just a bit nervous."

Carter nodded. "I do have a bit of a reputation, I'm afraid."

Silence.

"So… are you on the regular duty roster? I haven't seen you on it."

"Nope. We're 'Leaguers in training'," Gear said, and Static smiled.

"Yeah. We're on the 'Reserve Leaguers' list for the moment. But that could change any day now," he said confidently.

"Well, I hope it works out for you," Carter said, before the announcement chime sounded again.

"_Hawkman, please report to the bridge."_

Glancing down at his unfinished food, Carter grimaced. Static smiled sympathetically.

"That'll happen a lot."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

He nodded at the pair and, picking up his book, made his way out, putting the tray of food on the trolley by the door.

_I wasn't that hungry anyway._

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Wally looked up to the sky, begging for his stomach not to rumble.

_So… hungry…_

To any normal human, that meal would have been more than satisfactory. But for Wally West's increased metabolism, it was only just a snack. A gust of wind ruffled his messy red hair, and he felt Linda grasp his arm a little tighter in response to the cold breeze.

"Weird weather we're having," Linda said, as though reading Wally's mind.

"I know," he replied, nodding in agreement.

The pair came to a halt at the steps leading to the entrance of Linda's apartment building. She turned to him.

"Well, here we are."

"Yeah…" he said, looking up at the building with a look that of jealousy.

Linda squeezed his hand. "I really enjoyed tonight, Wally."

He looked down into her dark eyes and smiled. "Me too."

The two started moving towards one another, inching closer and closer…

Wally's Justice League earpiece beeped in his pocket. He paused for the briefest of moments before ignoring it and closing the gap between them, kissing Linda.

The entire world stopped. And Wally didn't think it was because of his super speed.

After what seemed a wonderful eternity, Linda broke off the kiss, looking down at Wally's pocket.

"Maybe you should answer that," she breathed, smiling anxiously.

"Uh…" he looked down at his pocket. "…it can wait."

She smiled. "It's okay. I need to be going inside anyway. Early day tomorrow, and all that."

Wally grinned. "Okay. I'll call you."

"Okay," she said, nodding, before kissing him on the cheek and making her way up the stairs and into the building.

Wally stood on the street for the longest time before he remembered his earpiece was beeping. Taking it out, he put it in his ear.

"Yeah?"

"_Flash, this is Mr Terrific. Next time, I'd appreciate it if you picked up on time."_

"Yeah, sorry. I was kinda… in the middle of something important."

"_You've been in the middle of something important the past seven times I've called you, Flash. If you can't put in the time, then switch to the reserve League roster."_

"Look, this is just something new. Once I've gotten into the groove of things, I'll be okay."

Mr Terrific sighed. _"All right. Just try and 'get into the groove' soon, okay?"_

"No prob. What's going on?"

"_It's not a problem anymore. We got someone else to fill in for you."_

"Who?"

Another sigh. _"Booster Gold."_

"Oh. Sorry."

"_Like I said; try and get this fixed soon. If you can't, we'll need to have a serious discussion about your priorities."_

Wally blew out a breath. "Yeah, okay. See you round, T."

He terminated the connection and put the earpiece back in his pocket. Looking up at the building, Wally frowned.

"Priorities…" he said to himself absent-mindedly, before setting off on a leisurely walk back home.

His stomach grumbled in protest, and he sped up.

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The doors to the bridge opened, and Carter stepped through, immediately noticing Green Lantern talking to J'onn and the seated Mr Terrific.

"…just think that someone should go and keep an eye on him. You know Flash; he doesn't want to be excluded from the League, he just gets carried away in other things sometimes.

Green Lantern looked over at him as he entered, and nodded a greeting.

"Hey."

Hawkman nodded in return. "How are you?"

"I'm… fine," Lantern replied, looking slightly puzzled by the question. "You?"

"Fine, fine." Carter turned to J'onn, who was stood next to Mr Terrific at the control panel. "What's the problem?"

J'onn looked over at him calmly. "Flash. He's been… slacking off of late."

Both Mr Terrific and Green Lantern cocked an amused eyebrow at J'onn's using the decidedly human phrase.

Carter nodded. "And what does this have to do with me?"

Mr Terrific turned in his chair. "Lantern thinks that he just needs someone to… push him in the right direction and help him through whatever's been bothering him."

"Unfortunately," J'onn interceded, "the majority of the League have been assigned to other missions, and won't be back for at least a few days."

Lantern came forward, finishing the explanation. "So we decided to send someone who could be neutral and impartial. That way Flash doesn't get preferential treatment."

Carter nodded again, but his bobbing head slowly ground to a halt as he realised what they were implying.

"Oh, I… I couldn't. I hardly know him."

"Exactly," Mr Terrific said.

"But-"

"Think of it this way," J'onn said. "It'll allow you to spend more time closer to home."

"I… suppose…" Carter shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "But spying on him… I don't feel comfortable with…"

Lantern put up a silencing hand. "We're not asking you to spy on him. You can work with him in Central City, if you want. You can even tell him why you're there. We just think he needs some kind of influence from the League to remind him that we're here."

Carter paused for a moment, and then sighed. "All right."

John nodded. "All right, good." He turned to J'onn. "Let's get going then."

The usually stoic Martian smiled and nodded, and the two floated down off the balcony, heading for the Javelin bay.

Mr Terrific looked over at Carter.

"Don't worry; Flash is a nice enough guy. Maybe a little abrasive, but… you'll get used to him."

Carter just nodded.

_Maybe I'll be able to get some reading done…_

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lightning made Frank nervous. At least, it made him nervous on days like this. On days when he was transporting potentially volatile substances, like he was today. He anxiously glanced in the mirror, checking that the trailer on the armoured van was still undamaged.

"Frank, would you calm down?" Ted murmured, half asleep. "There's no way we're going to get struck by lighting."

"It's just… this Xenothium stuff makes me nervous, is all. I mean, this stuff nearly decimated Jump City."

"Yeah, but that was because some psycho Professor put it in a laser cannon. It's in a heavily armoured trailer with nothing to attract lighting, so… Just. Calm. Down."

A strong gust of wind caused Frank to adjust his steering slightly. He glanced down at the water below them as they crossed the Central City Bridge. "Still…" he said, changing the subject. "Weird weather, huh?"

Ted nodded. "'Specially since nothing was forecast."

"See? See what I mean? There's something weird going on," Frank said, his nerves taking hold on him yet again.

Ted rolled his eyes and groaned. "Would you just _relax_? We're not gonna get struck by light-"

There was a blinding flash of light in front of them, and Frank covered his eyes with his arm, desperately trying to block some of it out. Temporarily blinded, he lost control of the van, sending it rolling along the road before skidding to an eventual halt.

Ted opened the door and crawled out, blinking desperately in an attempt to remove the swirling colours that danced across his vision. He looked up and saw what looked like a person floating to the ground, holding a glowing wand in his hand.

The shadowy figure sneered as Ted pulled out the shotgun from the cab section.

"Freeze!"

The figure stepped forward to reveal the Weather Wizard, smirking derisively. He held out his newly attained Weather Wand, which more resembled a true wizard's wand, although it's entire body was white.

"Ever had a thunder storm grow inside your belly?"

Ted's eyes widened as he felt his stomach become bloated. He dropped the shotgun and fell to his knees, clutching at his stomach in pain.

Frank pulled himself from the cab, and, seeing the Weather Wizard, pulled out his own weapon. He paused as he saw Ted on the floor, who was now screaming in pain. Frank pointed the rifle at the Weather Wizard.

"Stop it! Stop it now!"

He just smiled. "You can't stop the weather, my friend."

With a sudden burst of light, Ted exploded, leaving only a brief puff of smoke and a charred mark on the floor where he had once been.

Frank stared in disbelief at the spot where Ted had just been. Frank yelled in anger, tears streaming from his eyes as he pointed the gun at Weather Wizard.

The criminal named Mark Mardon just smirked and flicked his wand in Frank's direction. A sudden gust of wind sent him flying away up into the clouds.

As he broke open the van, Mardon wondered where the guard would end up landing.

With a smile, he decided he didn't care.

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(A/N: I thought it was about time Weather Wizard became the badass he is in the more recent comics than the loser he is in 'Speed Demons'.

Another slow burner, but I really wanted to get the two contrasting lifestyles and attitudes of Wally and Carter down, as well as establishing some kind of good relationship between Wally and Linda. We'll be seeing more of her as the story goes on.

Reviews: they're good.)


	3. A Bad Resolution

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

**_Chapter Three – A Bad Resolution_**

As soon as he saw it, Carter knew that Central City was a very different place to Midway City. For one thing, everyone seemed to have a cheery wave for one another. After looking up Flash's rogue's gallery, he saw that they weren't much different from the City which they terrorised. Carter wondered what special 'ingredient' had been added to the City to make it so welcoming and vibrant.

He dove down from his hovering spot in the sky, and got to looking for his reason for being there; the Flash.

Carter wasn't sure how he was going to handle this. He had only talked to the speedster once, but from that conversation Carter had surmised that Flash was quite independent, and probably wouldn't take well to having a babysitter. On the other hand, he _did _seem rather sociable, so perhaps he would have the opposite reaction and welcome his company with open arms.

…Perhaps not.

He had considered calling him on his communicator, but that would seem more like he was in trouble than anything else, and Carter had no desire to agitate him any more than he had to.

His communicator beeped for attention. Carter pressed his fingers to the small earpiece.

"Yes?"

"_Uh… Hawkman?"_

Carter paused. "Yes?"

"_Is that you floating outside the city limits?"_

"Central City limits, yes."

"_What the heck are you doing out there?"_

"Uh… looking for you."

A pause. _"Oh. There a problem?"_

"No. Well, yes. Not exactly."

"_Just come in, dude," _replied the Flash, a measure of amusement in his voice. Carter could tell that he was smiling.

"Right. Coming."

Hawkman pushed off with a strong beat of his wings, and made his way towards the city. Sure enough, stood on the bridge leading into Central City was the Flash, beckoning for him to follow before setting off down the road.

As Carter followed the Scarlet Speedster, he wondered whether Flash was going slow for his benefit or for the other drivers. After reading up on his capabilities, Carter knew that Flash could vibrate through solid objects, so it wasn't to avoid collisions. Then he noticed something; Flash was talking to the people in the cars. Not just a respectful nod, but a full blown conversation about something or other.

Flash waved goodbye to the female taxi driver, and turned off into the next exit. Carter followed, and cocked an eyebrow at the cheers and greetings that the speedster received as he went by.

The speedster came to a halt as he reached Central City Park, where he gestured for Hawkman to come down and land. Carter made his way down, and touched down softly on the grass, enjoying the feel of it beneath his boots.

"C'mon," Flash said, nodding to the path. "Let's walk and talk. I'm feeling kinda hungry."

And with that, the speedster turned and began walking down the path. He stopped and turned around.

"You coming?"

Carter shook himself from his reverie and followed.

"You're… quite popular."

He shrugged. "I guess. It's no big deal."

"Try visiting Midway City someday. It's a big deal."

Flash smirked. "What brings you here?"

"It's-" Carter stopped as they reached the center of the park.

There were four path ways leading to a circular pavement. Benches were planted to the left of each path way, where several families and happy couples now sat. In the center of the circle was a multi-tiered fountain, the sparkling water looking pure and fresh under the sun.

Flash looked over at him. "It's something, huh?"

"It certainly is," Carter replied, nodding.

"There was a pretty big thunder storm yesterday. This place always looks great the day after it's rained, don't you think? Hot dog?"

Hawkman tore himself away from the beautiful view before him. "I, uh… beg your pardon?"

Flash grinned. Carter couldn't help but notice how natural the expression looked on his face.

"Do you want a hot dog?" he elaborated, pointing over his shoulder to a hot dog vendor.

"Oh, um… no, thank you."

"You sure? My treat."

"Oh no, that wasn't why I-" Carter stopped himself and smiled. "I don't suppose a hot dog could hurt."

Flash nodded. "All right then. Be right back." He zipped over to the hot dog vendor, who seemed overjoyed to see him. After a particularly animated discussion with the vendor, Flash zipped back over to Carter and gave him his hot dog.

"The best in Central City, if not the world." He gestured over to a vacant bench. "Shall we?"

Flash quickly made his way over and flopped onto the bench, while Carter slowly made his way there and sat down carefully.

The speedster cocked an eyebrow at the cautious movements of his companion.

"Problem?"

"Well… I'm uh… not used to being so…"

"Public in costume?"

"I…" He paused. "Yes."

"Yeah, thought so. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. GL did."

Carter nodded. "I see."

"So…" Flash said, taking a hearty bite of his hot dog. "What brings you here?"

"I've uh… I've been sent to…"

"See what the heck I've been doing?"

"…yes."

The young speedster chuckled and shook his head. "Whose idea was it? GL? It was GL, wasn't it?"

"I'd rather not say."

"It _was!_ Ah, GL, GL, GL…" Flash threw his head up to look at the winged hero. "So. What'd he tell you to do? Keep an eye on me? Take me in for questioning?"

"The former rather than the latter."

Flash paused for a moment. "Uh… oh, okay."

The two shared a silence as they finished their hot dogs, watching parents walk by with their children and signing the occasional autograph. Even Carter was asked for an autograph by a small girl, though he doubted that she knew who he was. The fact that he was friends with the Flash was enough for her, apparently.

A couple walked by holding hands, completely engrossed in each other's eyes, and Hawkman noticed that Flash's expression had changed slightly when they had passed.

"Are you all right?"

The speedster shook his head, as though pulling himself from a daydream. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I was just asking if you were all right."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

Carter nodded, and there was another silence.

After another few minutes, Flash hopped to his feet. "Well…" he began, stretching. "It's been great, but I've got things to do, people to see. You can head back to the Watchtower if you want."

He turned, and was about to speed away when Carter got up.

"I don't think I can do that."

"What? Oh, c'mon. You've seen me, I'm okay. Seriously, there's no need to stick around."

"Except that I've been told to stick around. I'm sorry, Flash."

He sighed. "Look, I've got some stuff to do out of costume, and I don't really want you following me when I'm not dressed for the occasion, all right?"

"Well… all right. But keep you communicator on."

Flash let out a frustrated breath and ground his jaw. "This is so stupid…" he muttered, crossing his arms.

"Look, Flash… your friends are only doing this because they're worried about you."

"Then why didn't _they_ come themselves instead of sending _you_, huh?"

His words hung in the air around them, the emphasis on the word 'you' making Flash regret the words as soon as they had left his mouth.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm just not used to having a… babysitter, I guess."

"It's all right."

"Just, seriously… I'm fine. Just head back to the Watchtower and tell them I'm okay, and that I'll talk to them later if they want."

And with that, Flash turned and sped away.

Carter didn't try to follow.

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As a smirk once again crossed his face, Mark Mardon, in one of his brief moments of self-referential clarity, wondered if the mystically enhanced Weather Wand he held in his gloved hand had influenced his mind in some way. After all, Luthor knew little about mystical science. What if the modifications to the Weather Wand Luthor had made using Tala's magic had some side effects?

After all, he hadn't drawn such satisfaction from killing another in his entire life. He wasn't a psychotic; he was just looking out for himself, making sure he had enough to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of his life. It was what had led him to join Gorilla Grodd's (then Lex Luthor's) Secret Society. But now… he wanted revenge on those who had wronged him. He had had a brief taste of that when he had joined that 'Death to Superman' group along with Metallo, Livewire and others.

But Superman, while having once beaten him, was not the one whom the Weather Wizard wanted revenge on. After all, Superman was only brought along because of his race with the Flash.

Mardon scowled at the thought of the Scarlet Speedster, with his inane grinning face and cocky, enraging voice.

He swung his wand outward, sending streaks of lighting out that blasted each and every person in the bank into the walls, breaking bones and bruising muscles as they collided with the solid surface. It didn't matter whether they were security guards or just civilians looking to cash a cheque; Mardon would hurt or kill whoever he needed to get to the Flash.

He turned and stepped outside, trusting that the silent alarm he had deliberately tripped would bring both the police and the Flash running to him. But for now, he could wait. Summoning a gust of wind, he brought himself up, throwing his body limply in the wind until he was on the roof of the bank.

Using his control of the weather, he slowed his descent with a steady up current of wind until his thick black boots made contact with the roof. He looked up at the sky and the sunny day. Smirking, he raised the wand upward, sending a beam of light into one of the passing white clouds. Gradually, the cloud darkened and grew, until it became as black as Mardon's gloves and boots and blanketed the entire sky. The glorious sound of thunder rumbled through the air.

"Hey."

Mardon's eyes widened beneath his green visor, and he turned to see Hawkman floating high above him, his axe held limply by his side.

"The Weather Wizard, right? I've read up on your file. Apparently, you're not considered much of a threat."

Mardon brought his wand to bear in front of him. "Then get ready to up the threat level."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Weird weather, huh?"

Wally nodded, though he didn't really take in what was being said. He was getting better at paying attention to Linda, but he occasionally would still drift off looking at her face, or the way she drank her Starbucks coffee…

Wally mentally slapped himself.

_If Dick or Roy heard you thinking like that, you'd never hear the end of it._

"Wally? Are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Wally replied, shaking himself from his mental conversation.

Linda looked at him sideways, thinning her eyes. "It sure looks like there's something bothering you."

"Well… there were some problems with… uh… at work."

"Oh? What's up?"

"W- I, uh… let's see…" Wally scratched his chin and looked up at the ceiling. "I've been… distracted from work lately by uh, stuff… and the guys in charge sent a guy who hardly knows me to check up on me and see what was going on."

"That's kind of weird. Why didn't they send someone who knows you?"

The red head shrugged. "I dunno. All my friends were too busy, I guess."

"They don't much sound like friends if they don't come to talk to you when they're worried about you."

"Yeah, but… they're pretty busy all the time, and-"

"So? You're busy too, aren't you?"

"Well… yeah, but-"

"Then you should go talk to them. Tell them that if there's a problem,_ they_ should come and see you, not some guy who hardly knows you."

Wally's smile grew. Was there anything this woman _wasn't _perfect at?

"Y'know what? You're right. First thing tomorrow, I'm gonna tell them just that."

Linda nodded, smiling. "Good."

Another gust of wind whistled by outside the diner. Wally frowned.

"Now that just isn't usual…" he mumbled to himself.

"I know. Since when does Central City have gusts of wind that howl like that?"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, a lightning bolt came down and struck the top of the building opposite, sending rubble exploding everywhere. Several bystanders yelped and leapt out of the way of the falling debris.

"No way is that building the tallest in the City," Linda said, and Wally just nodded, staring up at the clouds.

_This is bad._

The redheaded speedster subtly reached into his pocket and pushed a button on his earpiece, causing it to beep. He smiled sheepishly at Linda.

"Just a sec," he said, getting up and pulling out his cell phone. He went to the far end of the diner, pretending to talk to someone over the phone. Wally felt bad for what he was doing, but there was nothing else to be done. People's lives were in danger, and he had to help in any way he could. After pretending to talk for another minute or so, he 'turned off' the phone and made his way back to Linda.

"Uh… that was the lab. I gotta go," he said, wincing at the lameness of the excuse.

Linda sighed and stood, leaving her plastic coffee mug on the table. "It's okay. I'd better get back to the station and start reporting on this anyway."

"I'll call you later, okay?"

Linda smiled and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "If you don't, I'll call you," she said, before turning and leaving.

Wally practically danced out of the diner, almost doing a pirouette out of the front doors. He quickly turned the corner and shot down the street, opening up his ring and leaping into the costume that sprang forth as he went. In the space of a few seconds, the Flash was in costume and ready to go, quickly running back to his apartment to drop off his civilian clothes.

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A truck heading down the Central City Bridge swerved in the heavy wind, before finally toppling and skidding along the road, heading towards several slower moving cars.

Flash zipped towards the cab of the truck and pulled out the driver before shooting back to each of the cars and pulling the drivers and passengers of the vehicles out before the truck hit. A quick salute, and he was off down the street.

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A lightning bolt struck the top of a skyscraper, sending the large chunks of brick and cement down towards the sidewalk and the pedestrians walking along it. A woman with a pram ran forward to try and avoid the debris, but lost her footing on the slippery ground. The pram was sent hurtling forward and towards the road, where a van was losing traction on the wet roads.

In a blur of red, the woman was picked up before the debris could even touch the ground, and the pram moved off the road as the van passed before it finally managed to ground to a halt. Flash zipped over to the van driver.

"You okay, Dave?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Listen; get this thing off the road. Don't try to drive it until the weather's calmed down a bit, okay?"

"Right. Thanks Flash."

"Any time."

The Scarlet Speedster zipped away, looking at the sky for some kind of clue as to what was going on. As he cast his eyes over to the right, he saw that there was a veritable collection of lightning bolts being hurled in one area of the City. Wally grimaced.

"Weather Wizard…" he muttered, before shooting off in the direction of the lighting bolts.

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Carter had no idea how he was going to beat Weather Wizard. From the files the Justice League had on Mardon, nowhere was it mentioned to exactly what extent he now had control of the weather. Before, he needed the holographic globe device that came with his wand in order to do much damage. And even then, he didn't have much knowledge in how to effectively use it.

Obviously, that had changed. Hawkman wasn't even sure how he was managing to avoid bolts of lightning, let alone if he was going to be able to beat Mardon. A red blur out of the corner of his eye attracted his attention.

That was all the distraction Mardon needed. Using his wand, he summoned another lightning bolt which struck Carter in his wing, knocking him back and hurtling him off the edge of the building.

Not bothering to check whether Hawkman met his end or not, Mardon turned to see the Flash helping civilians and police officers to evacuate the area.

"Flash!"

The speedster looked up at him. Mardon brought up his wand and swung it downwards, unleashing a torrent of lighting bolts upon Flash.

But the speedster had obviously learnt from his actions when he was working with Superman the first time. He easily dodged out of the way of the bolts, growing more and more infuriatingly cocky with every evasion.

"Hey! Whoops! Missed me. Missed again! C'mon, Wiz, _aim! _Woo! C'mon, you can do better than that!"

Mardon glanced over to where one police officer was helping another away from the scene, the other limping painfully. He fired off a lightning bolt just above their heads, burying them in rubble before Flash could even move.

The speedster's eyes widened in shock, and he sped over to the rubble, choosing to ignore Mardon.

"Your mistake," he said, bringing up his wand to fire down another lightning bolt on the distracted speedster.

"No. Yours."

Mardon turned in time to duck a punch from Carter and leap back slightly. Using the wind, Mardon threw himself upwards and allowed himself to float above Carter. Noticing his opponent's burnt wing, he smirked.

"Having trouble flying, are we?"

"Hold on! The piece of rubble's too thick, so I'm going to have to vibrate through and pull you out! Don't worry; I'll have you out in a sec!"

Mardon grimaced and turned to see Flash beginning to vibrate his molecules.

Hawkman looked at Mardon's target in alarm. "Flash, look out!"

Quickly turning, the Weather Wizard brought a lightning bolt down on the blurry mass of red and yellow, causing a burst of light much larger than he was expecting. Temporarily blinded, Mardon lost his concentration and fell down slightly.

Carter leapt up and grabbed on to Mardon's foot, pulling him further down and into his waiting fist. With a crunching noise and a grunt, Mardon was knocked unconscious. The weather slowly began to clear, the dark clouds parting and giving way to the sun and blue sky. He reached down and grabbed Mardon by the scruff of his neck, throwing him over his shoulder.

Although his damaged wings couldn't help him to fly upwards, they could slow his descent, and did so as he leapt from the roof of the building, landing deftly on ground level. He unceremoniously dropped Mardon to the ground, and, being sure to take his enemy's weapon with him, sprinted over to where the Flash lay, his body slightly smoking.

"Flash! Flash, are you all right?"

The speedster groaned and pointed to the rubble. "Them…"

Remembering why Flash had ended up being struck by lightning in the first place, Carter's eyes widened, and, after tucking Mardon's wand into his belt, he ran over to the large chunk of rock. Using his Nth metal enhanced strength, Carter dug his fingers into the hard surface and pulled the rock away, dragging it along the ground. The two trapped police officers inside almost leapt out, gasping for air.

"Thank you… uh…"

"Hawkman."

"-Hawkman. Thank you."

The two officers looked over at the Flash, who was slowly struggling to his feet, though his legs wobbled slightly.

"Hey Flash? Are you okay?"

Carter couldn't help but be amazed. These two police officers had been injured battling a supervillain and buried under rubble, and they were still concerned about the welfare of the Flash.

However, the speedster didn't seem to hear them.

"Uh… Flash?"

His head whipped around, his mask contorted with a look of anger. Slowly, his expression softened, and he brought his hand to his head.

"Uh, yeah guys… I'm good. But uh… you fellas better get to the hospital, chop chop."

The two officers smiled. "Yeah, sure thing, Flash. And thanks. You too, Hawkman."

Carter nodded. "Not a problem." The officers walked down the street and turned the corner. Once they were out of sight, Carter turned back to Flash.

"Are you all right?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure? I don't know how I'd feel after being struck by lightning."

"Why are still here?"

Carter frowned. "What?"

"I told you that you could go. Why are still here in my city?"

Hawkman's frown deepened. _His _city? That didn't sound like the Flash he had eaten hot dogs with earlier that day.

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine, and don't change the subject. Why, after I told you to go, did you stay?"

Carter straightened up. "With all due respect, I'm not taking orders from you. I was told by Mr Terrific to keep an eye on you, and until he tells me otherwise, that's what I'm going to do."

"Not taking orders from me? I'm a senior member!" he yelled, seeming exasperated.

"That doesn't mean you can tell me what to do and where to go," Carter shot back. He stopped himself and took a deep breath. "Look, it's not up to me or you what my orders are, so the best we can do is live with it for the moment, all right?"

Flash huffed through his nose. "Fine. Where's Mardon?"

Carter nodded over to the street where he had left him. "Right over…" he paused as he couldn't see him. "…there…" he said, searching in vain for the supervillain.

Flash threw his arms up in the air. "Oh, great. First you barge into my town, and then-"

"I was only trying to help, Flash."

"Well you certainly did a great job, chief! I screwed up a perfectly good date, got struck by lightning, which hurts like a bitch by the way, and then you _lose _the supervillain responsible for the whole thing!"

Refusing to be sucked into a yelling match, Carter pulled the wand out of his belt and lifted it up. "At least we have this. Without it, he's just another thug."

"Yeah. Just another criminal to mug some innocent old lady. Just another criminal to kill some kid."

Carter frowned. "Flash, I think that maybe we should go back to the Watchtower-"

"Well, _I _think you've done enough for me today. Okay? Okay."

"I just don't think you're acting like yourself."

"How do you know how I act? How do you think you know me?"

"Because you've shown me."

Flash seemed ready to retort, but simply remained quiet. "Whatever," he mumbled, before turning around and shooting off down the street.

Carter raised his hand as though to call out to Flash as he left, but he was left talking to thin air. Sighing, he reached for his earpiece.

"Watchtower, this is Hawkman. One for pickup."

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(A/N: If the fight scenes seemed a bit brief, that was intentional. After comparing the fights from my Justice League 'Connections' story and my _Teen Titans _story 'A Strange Business', I came to the opinion that my fights work better if they're shorter and faster.

Anyway, reviews are cool. Keeps 'em coming?)


	4. Uncomfortable

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Chapter Four: Uncomfortable**_

Carter sighed, hoping it wasn't too obvious over the communication channel.

Apparently, it was.

"_Look, you may not like it, but you'll just have to grin and bear it for the moment."_

"It's not a matter of _me _liking it," Carter replied. "He doesn't want me here, and I'm beginning to agree with him."

Now it was Mr Terrific's turn to sigh. Hawkman could all but see him pinching his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Someone had told him that Mr Terrific suffered from migraines from time to time as a result of his enhanced intelligence. He couldn't remember who had told him, but from the strained sound of the Justice League administrator's voice, it didn't sound too far from the truth.

"_I'm sorry, Hawkman, but none of his closer colleagues are available. Lantern's on his way back, but he won't be here for at least another day. And after the outburst you described, we need someone looking out for Flash, especially now."_

"I don't see what harm he could do if left to himself for a day or so. I just don't see the point in antagonising him further. Between me and the Weather Wizard, he seems to be aggravated enough."

"_How goes the search for Mardon? Any luck?"_

"The police don't have a clue, and Flash has already checked the Rogue's bar."

There was a silence on the other end of the line. _"Did you say Rogue's bar?"_

"Yes, they all seem to spend most of their free time there."

"_And Flash doesn't bring them in?"_

Carter shrugged, though he knew that Mr Terrific wouldn't be able to see it. He had found that odd as well, but then again, the Flash was an enigma to him in so many ways. He had never come across a superhero (or law enforcement officer) that had been so… at ease with themselves. At least, he _appeared _to be at ease. His earlier explosion at Carter could have been symptomatic of something else. He'd have to take some time and ask either Flash (once he had calmed down) or perhaps Shayera.

"Don't ask me. I would've asked him, but he barely stuck around long enough to tell me that Weather Wizard wasn't at the bar before shooting off again."

"_Do you know where he is now?"_

"At the rate he moves, he could be anywhere. And I certainly don't want to go prying into his personal life."

Mr Terrific sighed again. _"All right. Just try to keep an eye on him until GL arrives, and then you can head back to Midway."_

Carter looked out over Central City, taking in the view.

"_Hawkman?"_

"Sorry. Yes, of course."

"_I suppose you're looking forward to getting back."_

"Yes… you'd certainly think so…"

"_Sorry?"_

"Uh, nothing. I'll check in later. Hawkman out."

He pushed the button on his earpiece and took in the view. It wasn't a perfect city by any means, but the people more than made up for that. They had even seemed accepting of him. Hell, even the anti-Thanagarian citizens were polite about their distaste for him, simply asking him to leave rather than shouting 'Filthy hawk'.

It was as if the Flash's easygoing personality had bled outwards into the city. Maybe Flash had put something in the water. Carter sighed at the thought of the speedster, and the last conversation they had had a few days ago. He had seen the Flash on the news from his TV in Midway, so he was obviously still running around out there somewhere.

It seemed very strange to him that Flash was such good friends with Shayera. He had seen them on several occasions on the Watchtower simply chatting and laughing about something or other, playing cards or watching a movie. Their reputation as a fighting team was growing as well. Just the other day, Booster Gold was excitedly telling a group of heroes how the two had taken out three giant yellow monsters summoned by the magician Abra Kadabra. The way they acted around one another, it was as though they were a couple, yet not. Dr Light had told him of whisperings of the two being together, but the fact that Flash and Green Lantern were still best friends seemed to indicate otherwise.

That was another thing that impressed Carter; the Flash's ability to be nearly everybody's friend without even trying. The idea of being such close friends with two people who used to be a couple was Carter's idea of a nightmare, yet Flash seemed to do it with a happy ease and grace. Of course, there was always the possibility that Flash was trying _too _hard to please everyone, which Carter could sympathise with. Hell, he was having trouble pleasing _anybody_, let alone _every_body.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Carter turned and pushed off from the roof of the skyscraper, enjoying the sound of the wind rushing past his face as he fell slightly, before swooping back up and around the city.

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After taking in and letting out a nervous deep breath, Wally reached forward and pushed the intercom button for Linda's apartment, being careful not to press it over a hundred times at superspeed (which he had done before in a nervous moment on the Watchtower; J'onn hadn't been happy).

And then he waited.

If there was one thing that Wally West had learnt to do well, it was waiting. Because of the nature of his powers, three seconds could become a relative three minutes to him. It usually kicked in while his powers were in full swing, though not always; nerves were the reason behind it most of the time. The faster he went, the slower his perceptions, though he rarely pushed himself past the speed of sound; any faster than that took a lot of energy to maintain, and he also ran the risk of disappearing as he had before. It was usually why he seemed so bored in meetings or other talky occasions; once someone had raised a point, he had already thought it over from every angle he could think of and made up his mind, which accounted for his stubbornness.

If there was one thing that his fellow Leaguers could say about him, it was that he rarely changed his mind about something. Which accounted for his strong belief that while helping to preserve and save the environment is very important (as Wonder Woman was saying in meetings with increasing frequency), helping the people was more important.

Some others didn't agree, but that didn't bother him too much; he wasn't looking to convince anyone. Hell, he was the Fastest Man Alive. While other heroes looked out for the environment and other big global stuff, he could look after the people he cared about so much by himself. It was this concern for the people that explained why, though they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, he felt kindred to Batman. Well, maybe not kindred, but a little bit similar.

Wally looked over at a bird that was flying by, noticing how its wings were flapping at about one third of their usual speed. He sighed.

He hated this side effect of his powers sometimes. While it _was _useful on the job in the middle of a car crash or a gun fight, it wreaked havoc with his social life.

The intercom gradually sprang to life.

"_Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhello?"_ Linda's voice came through, Wally's perceptions adjusting back to normal as she spoke.

"Uh, hi. It's Wally."

"_Go away, Wally."_

The intercom crackled once, and turned off again. Wally closed his eyes and let his head hang. After his battle with the Weather Wizard, he had decided to blow off some steam and go for a run around the world to calm himself down. The strange thing was, he couldn't remember a lot of it. All he could remember was a lot of darkened clouds and lightning.

He had shrugged it off as being a side effect of being struck by lightning earlier that day. It still made him angry that Hawkman had stayed, though he was beginning to feel guilty over how he had laid into the poor guy. After all, it wasn't his fault what his orders were. The truth was, Wally was angrier at his friends for not coming to talk to him themselves, and Hawkman was unfortunately the only one around for him to unload that frustration on. Wally resolved to go and find him and apologise.

_Just after I've taken care of this little problem._

Unfortunately, his run around the world had made him forget to call back Linda, though he didn't realise until a few days later. More unfortunate still, he didn't want to run the risk that he _had _called Linda before and simply forgot about it and end up calling her _again_. After all, he didn't want to seem desperate.

Wally had head butted the wall a few times for being so paranoid. Yet another disadvantage of thinking so damn fast; he would, on occasion, over think things. On the other end of the spectrum, he would occasionally do something before he had the chance to think about it, lest he talk himself out of doing it.

Hence why others would _occasionally _become angry with him.

He pushed the button again. Thankfully for him, his perceptions didn't shift into superspeed mode this time as he waited.

"_What?"_

"Linda I'm sorry I didn't call you back but I've been so swamped at work and I wanted to call but I didn't get the chance actually I may have lied I forgot the first time but then I didn't want to call again and seem desperate but now I remember I didn't call you at all I'm sorry it's my boss's fault," he said as quickly as he could before Linda could even cut him off.

"…_what?" _

Wally smiled. Her voice was gentler this time around.

"Uh… could we talk about it over lunch? I'm buying…"

There was a pause from the intercom, and Wally was beginning to fear that his powers had kicked in again when Linda replied.

"_Okay. But you better have a damned good explanation, Wally West."_

The intercom shut off, and Wally grinned. Although he knew he shouldn't be feeling cocky at this point, the fact that Linda was so upset at the lack of contact with him could only mean that she liked him. He danced down the steps leading up to Linda's door.

_Linda Park likes Wally West._

Wally had a feeling that no matter how many times he did it, he would never get tired of thinking that.

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Feeling _incredibly _awkward in his costume, Carter sat down on the park bench with his book. He was nearing the end of the journey through the lives of an Inuit tribe braving the Canadian winter, and had been struck by the sudden urge to sit in the same place that he and Flash had done before. As he opened the book and set down his sandwich next to him, he looked around, though not in any kind of paranoid way. There wasn't much to sit back and enjoy in Midway City except for the architecture. And even that was very dark, grey and gothic. There was nothing quite like Central City Park in Midway City.

He opened his book and began reading.

"Um, excuse me?"

Carter slowly lowered the book to see a little girl holding a balloon, staring up at him with curious brown eyes.

"Yes?"

"Do you know Flash?"

"I… yes."

"Are you his friend?"

"I work with him."

"But you're not his friend."

"I haven't known him for long, but he certainly seems like a very nice person." Carter paused for a moment, and then closed his book. "Do you know Flash?"

She nodded, smiling. "Yeah. He saved my Mom from a fire once. He took me for a really fast piggy back ride too." She cocked her head at him. "What's your name? Birdman?"

Carter let out a quiet laugh. "No. My name's Hawkman."

"Like Hawkgirl?"

"That's right."

"Are you two married?"

"Ah, no."

"How come?"

Carter opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. "…well," he managed. "We're not very close."

"Then now come you're Hawkman and she's Hawkgirl?"

"Well… she's not Hawkgirl now. She's called Shayera."

"Shay… Shay…"

"Shayera."

"Hawkgirl's easier to say."

"Yes, I suppose it is."

"Why'd she change her name?"

"Well, Shayera's her real name. And there are some people who don't like people who dress like this," he said, pointing to his Hawkman helmet.

"How come?"

"Because some people who dressed like this hurt a lot of people a while ago."

"Did Hawkgirl hurt people?"

"Not really. She was tricked into thinking she was helping the people, but once she found out what was really going on, she helped the Justice League save the world."

"Did you hurt people?"

"No, I wasn't Hawkman back then."

"Why are you Hawkman now?"

"It's just something I needed to do," he said, shrugging.

The girl seemed to consider this for a moment. "Could I be a superhero?"

"I don't know. Do you have any powers?"

"My Mom says I can yell real loud when I need to."

Carter smiled. "Well, Black Canary can do that too, and she's in the Justice League. So maybe someday when you're older."

An older woman came hurtling around the corner.

"Annie! Annie, My God…" She grasped the girl's hand and looked over at Hawkman apologetically, not even pausing at how he was dressed. "I hope she hasn't been too much trouble."

Carter smiled and shrugged. "Not at all. She's quite the conversationalist."

"Yeah, she likes to talk. She could be a talk show host when she's older."

Annie vehemently shook her head. "Nuh-uh, Mom. Hawkman says that I could be in the Justice League when I'm older 'cause you said I could yell real loud and there's a girl called Black Canary who can yell real loud and she's in the Justice League so could I be in the Justice League?"

Carter smiled apologetically at the mother, who simply smiled good-naturedly.

"Maybe when you're older, honey. It was nice meeting you… Hawkman, is it?"

"Yes. It was nice meeting you, too. Goodbye Annie."

"Goodbye, Hawkman!"

The mother pulled her daughter away, walking around the corner and behind a tree before Carter lost sight of them. With a contended smile, he got back to his book. A sudden gust of wind nearly blew the book from his hands.

"Uh… hey."

Hawkman turned to see Flash stood beside him, hands behind his back in an anxious gesture.

"I uh… I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. It's not your fault. God knows I've let bad guys get away because I've been doing something else."

"It's all right."

"No, it's not, dude. You came over to me to try and help me. You saved those two cops lives… oh, yeah. They want you to swing by and visit them in the hospital ward they're staying in so that they can thank you."

Carter gave pause at that. "They… what?"

Flash smiled. "Yeah, y'know, _thank _you? As in being grateful for saving their lives kinda thing?"

"Oh. I see."

The speedster nodded to the vacant space next to Carter. "You uh… mind if I sit down?"

"Not at all." Hawkman scooted over slightly to accommodate the speedster, who cautiously sat down.

"Uh… just so y'know, I wasn't really angry at _you_."

Carter remained silent, deciding that what Flash really needed was to just let out his frustrations.

"It's just… you'd think that one of my friends would come out and see me if there was a problem, y'know?"

"Well… maybe they're-"

"Busy, I know, I know. But I'm busy too, y'know. And I wouldn't think twice about dropping everything to find out if they were okay. At least, I haven't done before."

"You'd drop everything just to see to a friend?"

"Well… yeah. I mean, if you haven't got friends, what have you got?"

"Family?"

"Yeah, but everybody's got them. My uncle always used to say that 'the best way to judge a man is by looking at the company he keeps,' and it's true."

Carter couldn't really think of any kind of reply to that. Flash punched him in the arm gently.

"But hey, you know what I'm talking about, right? I mean, you've probably got loads of buddies over at Midway City."

"Actually… most of my friends distanced themselves from me when I started talking about aliens landing in ancient Egypt," he said, a small twang of irony entering his voice.

"Oh. Well, uh… at least you've got family, right?" Flash replied, laughing nervously.

"Actually… I've only got a brother called Guy, and we don't really talk anymore…"

"Oh, geez dude, give me something to work with here…"

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise! You're just making it worse."

"Oh. S- Um… okay."

Flash let out a quick laugh. "You're a strange one, buddy." The speedster sighed and looked around the park, leaning back on the bench in a relaxed manner that Carter was glad to see back again.

"Sorry to bring this up, but is there any news about the Weather Wizard?"

The speedster's shoulders slowly tensed at the mention of the Rogue, and Carter regretted bringing it up for a moment. Then his crimson clad shoulders relaxed again, and he shook his head.

"No. I've been checking the bar once every day at random times, but he's never there. I think they're on to the fact that I know where their bar is now."

"I've actually been wondering about that. If you know that these criminals go to this bar, why don't you go after them?"

"Because if they're in there, they're not hurting anyone."

Carter looked over at the speedster, and the Flash put up his hands defensively. "I know how it sounds, but it's not like I'm crooked or anything like that. It's just the truth. Not to mention the fact that a lot of these guys can teleport, disappear or otherwise just vanish before I can do anything. Then they get pissed off because I came after them in their favourite bar, and then they plot they nasty revenge and end up hurting people just to get to me."

"But what about-"

"I swing by there every day and keep track of who's there and who isn't. And to be honest, the really dangerous guys are either in prison or don't go to that bar anyway."

"Like the Top and Heatwave."

"Exactly."

"Hm."

Flash cocked his head. "You don't like how I do things, huh?"

It didn't sound like a challenge; more an observation.

"Well… I don't like it, but I certainly respect it. I admire that you can be so relaxed about it."

"Huh. Thanks," he replied, a grin springing on to his face.

"What?"

"Nothing… I just, uh… don't get that a lot."

"What?"

"…admiration, I guess."

"Well, perhaps not in the same way that, say, Superman gets it, but people certainly admire you."

"They do?"

Carter nodded. "Oh, very much so. In fact, a small girl talked to me before you arrived, and the first thing she asked was whether I was friends with you."

"What was her name?"

"Annie."

"Ah, Annie. Brown hair, brown eyes, can yell like crazy?"

"That's her."

"Yeah, she's great. Gave her a-"

"Super-speed piggy back. She told me she enjoyed it very much."

Flash grinned and nodded. "Great. Well, just wanted to say sorry about before. I'll tell you if I get anything on Weather Wizard, okay?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that. In fact, Green Lantern should get here tomorrow, so I'll be leaving."

"Well, until he does get here… I'll give you the call, okay?"

Carter smiled. "Okay."

"See you later," Flash replied, giving a quick salute and shooting off into the distance.

Carter, still smiling, turned and sat down, opening his book. Maybe he'd have to start a movement for a Midway City Park.

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The blonde police scientist made his way through the doors to the lab, engrossed in the clipboard in front of him. His furious scribbling was interrupted by his co-worker Tony, who gently tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"What can I do for you, Tony?"

"Um… there's a woman here. She says she wants to see Wally's boss."

"Well… I suppose that's me then, isn't it?" he asked, his usual good cheer shining through his words. "Where is she?"

"She's just over by his desk."

He looked over, and sure enough, there was a black haired Asian woman leant against the edge of Wally's desk, her arms crossed and her finger tapping her arm impatiently. He made his way over, extending his hand.

"Hello. Can I help you?"

"Are you Wally's boss?"

"I'm Wally's supervisor, so I suppose you could call me his boss, yes."

"Well then, maybe you can tell me why you not only send some stranger to talk to him when he's feeling low instead of one of his friends, but you also pull him away during his off hours in the middle of a citywide crisis?"

"Um, I-"

"While we're at it, maybe you could explain to me why you didn't allow him to even call anyone to tell him he was being slave driven by his boss for the past few days, whom 'I suppose' is you."

"I'm afraid I don't-"

"Damn right you don't. That man is one of the sweetest and kindest I've ever met, and you should be ashamed of yourself for using him like that."

She quickly turned and stormed out of the police lab, slamming the door loudly behind her.

The blonde scientist looked around the room.

"Does anyone know who that was?"

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Mardon tossed his head back as he took another shot of tequila.

"Another one."

The bartender paused. "Mardon, I-"

"Another one!"

He flinched, but took the glass and refilled it.

"All you people… thinking you can tell me what to do… like my dear brother… so small and stupid… but he thinks he can just-"

The door to the bar flew off its hinges, propelled by a now unconscious bouncer. Through the open doorway stepped someone who, to Mardon's eyes, appeared to be the Flash, though his shadowy appearance distorted his appearance.

"What-"

Before he could say anything else, a scarlet fist slammed into his chin, sending him across the bar and onto the pool table, cracking it in half as he landed.

The other patrons of the bar quickly tried to vacate the premises, though the Flash caught the more colourfully dressed criminals and smashed them around the bar, slamming faces into walls and breaking bones.

Looking over, Mardon saw a pocket knife dropped by one of the pool players, who had now left.

He picked it up and struggled to his feet, the alcohol all but wiped out by the adrenalin rushing through his veins. The Flash looked over at him and charged forward.

Mardon slashed outwards with the knife, though the speedster easily ducked the blade. The very tip of his left earpiece was caught by the blade, and it fell silently to the floor.

The Weather Wizard didn't see much else after that; his eyes were swelled shut by bruises as the Flash almost tore him apart.

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(A/N: A cookie goes to someone who can guess the identity of Carter's brother… the clue is in his surname…

P.S. He's not Carter's brother in the comics, but he is an important figure in the DCU…

A few things I'd like to address:

In the comics, Flash moves at near Lightspeed all the time, but that just makes it too damn hard to write good action scenes where Flash is actually in danger of being hurt. So I brought in a compromise between the modern comics and the early 90s comics; Flash's average speed (that we see most of the time in the show) is the speed of sound, but if he really pushes himself (a la 'Divided We Fall'), he can get to Lightspeed and the Speed Force.

Also, I'd just like to mention that in my mind, the reason Wally doesn't vibrate through walls and such in the show often is that it takes a lot of concentration for him to do (hell, just try shaking _your _hand as fast as you can; it takes quite a bit of effort to keep up).

I don't know the name of Wally's boss in the show, and since in my stories, Barry Allen is alive and retired, I couldn't give him that name. As it is, he will remain 'blonde scientist' until I can think of a good name.

Anyway, reviews are cool beans!)


	5. Unwelcome Company

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

**_Chapter Five: Unwelcome Company_**

Wally's pale blue eyes flitted open, revealing the cream colour of his ceiling above him. He wriggled uncomfortably on his back and winced as he realised he was on the particularly hard floor of his apartment. Using a brief spurt of superspeed, he quickly sat upright, looking around the apartment in a daze.

He rubbed the back of his neck, attempting to sooth the tight muscles that resulted from his sleeping on the floor.

_I don't remember going to sleep on the floor…_

With another burst of speed, Wally was on his feet, stretching grandly and loudly.

"Probably sleep-running again…" he mumbled, a grimace crossing his lips as he tasted the coppery flavour of his mouth.

"And sleep-eating…" he added, making his way to the bathroom. In the space of three minutes, he had showered, brushed his teeth and put on his specially mixed hair wax for that 'casual, ruffled, yet smart' look he liked so much.

Another minute later, he had dashed into his room and changed, making his way over to his chest of drawers to pull out a Flash ring. As he slipped it on his finger, he couldn't help but think about how much he loved having a way to store his Flash costume that suited him. The whole 'pulling back the shirt to reveal the mighty symbol' was really Clark's thing, and Bruce had Batman costumes securely locked away in nearly every nook and cranny of his Wayne Enterprises buildings. And Diana… well, Wally sometimes laughed at the image of her wardrobe consisting of row upon row of Wonder Woman costumes.

The beep of his communicator distracted him from his highbrow musings, and he instinctively reached for his ear.

"Hey, what the…?" he muttered, grimacing.

_Duh, Wally. You're not in Flash costume. Why would you be wearing your earpiece?_

Frowning at his own stupidity, his reached into his pants pocket, but came up short. At superspeed, he ran to his room and checked the pockets of each of his pants, but still found nothing.

"Where the hell are you?" he loudly asked the beeping noise, which still continued.

Again using his superspeed, he set to looking under every cushion, blanket and anything else strewn across the floor. A few minutes later, and he was still clueless. He looked up to the heavens, arms outstretched to his sides.

"Where in-?"

He paused as he glimpsed the earpiece resting on top of the TV, neatly placed next to his Justice League ID card.

"Oh."

In a blur of colour, Wally had put in his earpiece and pocketed the card. He pushed his fingers to the earpiece.

"Yeah?"

"_Flash."_

"GL?"

"_You might want to come down to Fourth Street."_

"The Rogue's Bar? What's up?"

"_Just get down here."_

"But I've gotta go to work-"

"_**Now**."_

The grave tone of voice made Wally stop in his tracks. John Stewart had always been of far more serious ilk than the Scarlet Speedster, but even Wally could appreciate how serious the Green Lantern was being now.

"Uh, yeah. I'll, uh… I'll get going."

Wally barely remembered to lock the door to his apartment behind him.

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The Flash came to a skidding halt outside of the Rogue's Bar. His eyes widened beneath his scarlet cowl as he saw the destruction wrought upon the drinking establishment.

"Woah…"

A gaggle of reporters, previously focused on the wreck of a bar, suddenly noticed his presence and made their way over faster than humanly possible.

"Flash! Flash! What do you say to allegations that you were responsible for the destruction of the Rogue's Bar?"

Wally frowned. "What? I didn't-"

Another reporter spoke up. "How do you intend to respond to the lawsuits being filed for bodily harm from the Rogues injured?"

"What? What are you-?"

Yet another reporter spoke up, this one female. Wally looked through the crowd to see Linda Park holding her microphone forward, her camerawoman closely following behind her.

"Flash! Did you really give Weather Wizard a broken nose, arm, and several compound fractures?"

"Woah now! Who said I-?"

A green wall of luminescent energy appeared between Flash and the crowd of reporters, separating them. Wally looked over to see John Stewart approaching.

"No more questions. The League will be issuing a statement later."

This didn't dissuade the reporters any.

"Mr Lantern! Are the rumours of you and Hawkgirl getting back together true?"

"Is Hawkman involved?"

"Flash! Are you involved in a love tryst between Green Lantern and Hawkgirl?"

Even though he had no idea what was going on, Wally still had to laugh inwardly at the look on John's face at that question.

John led Wally over to the innards of the wrecked bar, where Hawkman was waiting, his arms crossed and a perturbed look on his face as he looked over the wreckage.

"Hey, thanks GL. I don't know what-"

The Lantern whirled on his heel to face him. "You mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

"What?"

"I go away for a few days on a mission, and when I come back I hear allegations of you nearly killing a dozen people and destroying this place!" he said, gesturing to their annihilated surroundings.

"Woah, woah, woah, time out. Who said I did that stuff?"

A large police officer stepped forward, wearing a beat officer's uniform, except without the cap. He had steely gray hair, and a craggy face that would have done Darkseid proud. His voice growled and thundered like Batman on a bad day.

"We have several eyewitnesses that put you here and beating the living crap out of the Weather Wizard, Mr Element and The Fiddler."

Wally didn't recognise the police officer, which was something new for him.

Another officer stepped forward, this one significantly shorter and slighter in frame than the older, larger man. His dark skin contrasted with his pale coloured choice of suits, which in Wally's opinion did nothing for him.

"Not to mention the seven or so other people in the bar who have little or no connection to you or the Rogues."

Wally paused for a moment, before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, who are you guys?"

The smaller man put up his hand. "Officer Jared Morillo." He gestured over to the big cop in the uniform. "And this is Officer Fred Chyre. We're with the Central City Department of Metahuman Hostility."

"And believe me, from what I've seen of the victims, hostility is the right word," Chyre added, the growl of his voice almost making Wally back away from the large man.

Wally cocked an eyebrow. "I've never heard of you guys before."

Morillo shrugged. "No reason you should have. We're a new department, and we're both transfers from other cities."

The Scarlet Speedster sighed. "All right, all right… what's going on? Could somebody tell me?"

Chyre stepped forward, leaning threateningly towards Wally. To his credit, the speedster didn't budge. "First of all, how about you tell us where you were last night at twelve thirty?"

John quickly moved between the two. "How about you back off and calm down?"

The two stood nose to nose, glaring daggers at one another.

Hawkman cleared his throat. "Before we start this… debate, perhaps we should tell Flash what's going on?"

Chyre and John both looked over at Hawkman, then back at each other, before slowly backing away from one another, taking positions next to their respective companions. Hawkman nodded in approval, and John turned to face Wally.

John frowned, loath to deliver this news. "They've got quite a few witnesses saying that you were here last night, and that you completely totalled this place, along with the people inside… including Weather Wizard."

Flash frowned. "But… I wasn't. I went home at ten after meeting up with-" he paused, glancing up at Morillo and Chyre. "-a friend. Then I went home and went to sleep."

Chyre snorted loudly. "And yet, we've got eight eyewitnesses and security footage saying you were here last night at twelve thirty."

The speedster's eyes widened. "What? But that's not… I mean…"

Hawkman stepped forward. "Flash. Do you remember anything they're talking about?"

"No, of course not! I didn't do it!" Flash replied instantly, looking him in the eyes.

Even though his eyes were masked by the blank white lenses of his crimson hood, Hawkman could see something there. Something that he instinctually trusted.

"I believe you."

Chyre threw his arms up in the air. "Big surprise…" he muttered.

John scowled in the policeman's direction. "You got something you want to say?"

The hulking cop turned around as if to reply, but Morillo put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Not now, Chyre. You're not helping."

Chyre grumbled something that Wally was sure he didn't want to hear. Morillo took a breath, and looked over at Flash.

"So, you're denying any part in this?"

"Yes! I had nothing to do with this!"

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! You don't think I'd remember doing _this?" _he yelled, gesturing wildly to his surroundings.

"All right, all right," Morillo replied, putting up his hands in surrender. "But you've got to admit, there aren't many people around who can do what you do, even _with_ all the superheroes flying around."

Hawkman stepped forward. "And _you've _got to admit, there are plenty of super-powered individuals who can pretend to be someone else. Perhaps mind control is involved. Maybe it's something else. In this day and age, we can't rule out anything."

Morillo seemed ready with a rebuttal, but settled for a sigh. "True." He looked over at Flash. "Look, I know you do a _lot _of good for this City, and I sure as hell don't want to be known as the cop who dragged you in for a case of mistaken identity. But you've got to understand, if there _is _something going on with you, then we can't just have you running around Central."

Lantern nodded. "_I'll _be keeping an eye on him. He's not going anywhere until we've got this figured out."

"Right," Morillo replied, pulling out his notebook and began scribbling something down.

Hawkman leaned over. "You may want to call the Justice League Government Liaison Officer, Agent King Faraday. He should be able to keep you apprised of the situation."

Wally's eyebrows shot up, impressed at Hawkman's knowledge of the inner workings of the League. He looked over at John, who seemed similarly surprised, and also a little flustered. Relations with law enforcement was something the Lantern always forgot, and was never particularly good at. If the situation were less dire, Wally would have had to hide his grin at the memory of the public relations role-play workshops that Superman insisted on, and John always failed miserably at.

Morillo wrote down the name, and nodded at the group of superheroes.

"All right. We'll call this Agent Faraday to discuss what to do. In the meantime, I don't want to see you on the streets, you got that?" he said, pointing his closed notebook at Flash.

The speedster sighed. "Yeah, I got it."

Morillo nodded. "Good. Chyre, let's go."

The officers left, Chyre and John having a miniature glaring contest as he left. John turned to look at Wally.

"All right, I think we should-"

Hawkman raised his hand. "Um… perhaps we should discuss this _elsewhere_…?" he said, nodding towards the reporters gathered outside the wrecked bar, staying just outside the police line perimeter.

John begrudgingly nodded. "Right."

Wally put his fingers to his earpiece. "Watchtower. Three to Flash home coordinates, user code 006."

With a blur of white blue light around them, the three heroes were instantly transported to the apartment of one Wally West. Before, he would have been concerned about revealing his secret identity to Hawkman, but right now, other concerns were bearing down on his mind.

"All right, all right. Let's think about this."

John sighed. "Flash…"

"Anything weird happened lately… c'mon, think Flash, think…"

"Flash."

"Anything magical? No, that's not it…"

"Flash!"

"What?"

"Calm down. You're not helping."

"Yeah, yeah, right. Calm down, sit down… yeah, yeah, that's good," he quietly said, making his way over to his sofa and sitting down, though he didn't look like he would stay put for long.

Hawkman looked over at the speedster concernedly. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay! I'm being accused of nearly killing these guys, and I don't know if someone's controlling me while I'm sleeping, or if this is some subconscious thing that's only just coming out now-"

John sat down on the armchair next to the sofa. "W-" he paused before looking over at Hawkman. "Could you, uh…"

Hawkman stood idly for a moment, before realisation struck. "Oh. You mean… uh, yes, of course. I'll just…" He awkwardly turned towards the two closed doors in the room, before realising he didn't know where he was going. "Um… where is the, um…"

Flash pointed to the space next to him on the sofa irritably. "Dude, just sit down," he said quickly and angrily. Hawkman did as he was told.

John leaned forward. "All right, now _think_, Flash. Are you sure you don't remember _anything_ from last night?"

"No! I told you, no."

"Are you _sure_?"

"Yes!"

"Don't get angry with me, Flash! I'm trying to help you!"

Hawkman leaned forward. "Maybe we should-"

John looked over at him irritably. "And _you _can just-" he stopped himself short before he said something he would regret. "Actually, Hawkman, you can go home. I can take things from here."

"But I-"

"You have other mission assignments. Go."

Flash raised a meek hand. "Uh-"

John pointed a silencing finger at the speedster. "We'll talk in a minute." He turned to Hawkman. "You can go, Hawkman," he said slowly, his tone of voice and facial expression almost a warning.

Hawkman stared blankly at him for a few moments, as though in disbelief. "Yes. Yes, of course. I'll…" he pointed to the door. "Right."

He stood and put his fingers to his earpiece. "Hawkman to Watchtower. One for pickup."

Hawkman and Flash exchanged looks before he faded from view.

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Alfred Pennyworth made his way down the large stone steps, still enjoying the light echoing noise of his shoes on the hard floor after all these years. The tray of food and drink he held in his hands remained effortlessly level after years of training and experience. Though which one benefited him more, he couldn't tell.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and made his way over to the large computer screen at the far end of the cave. Such a large monstrosity. Alfred sometimes wondered why the Bat-computer wasn't one hundredth of its size by now, especially considering what technology could do these days.

Setting down the tray on a bare section of desk, he looked over at what the cloaked man sat at the computer was working on. It seemed to be security tapes taken from a street corner, although it didn't look at all like Gotham City.

"Your dinner, Master Bruce."

"Thank you, Alfred."

That was something that had never changed in his entire time with Bruce Wayne; whether in or out of the black cowl of the Batman, he would always thank Alfred. Even on his darkest days, he would always remember to thank him.

And people called him heartless.

"Trouble in somewhere other than Gotham, sir?"

Batman almost nodded in response. "It's Central City."

The butler cocked a curious eyebrow. "That's the home of the Flash, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Is this not something he can take care of, sir? After all, you _do _tend to take on more work than you need to as it is."

The Dark Knight eyes thinned as he leaned forward, scratching his chin. "He's the prime suspect."

Alfred's eyebrows shot up. "Oh. I see. And you don't think he did it?"

Batman remained silent, simply punching some buttons on the computer. "Watch this footage."

Alfred peered over, watching what was going on. The camera was positioned on top of a lamppost at the corner of a street, slowly panning across.

"The camera takes thirty seconds to pan across the street one way, and another thirty to go back again. That's one minute. Now," Batman said, pointing at the screen, "watch that bar."

Alfred watched. The camera panned over to the left, and, just as the bar was in the far right of the corner, the bouncer out front was suddenly gone, along with the door. The butler thought he could make out a figure stood in the doorway for a brief second, before the camera moved out of range. The camera slowly moved back again, and as the bar slowly came back into focus, Alfred gasped.

"My word."

The bar was in tatters, with several people strewn outside the entrance and hanging through the broken windows, battered and bruised. Batman stopped the footage, and Alfred looked over at him.

"It isn't looking good for the Flash, I take it."

"No."

"I suppose the only question is whether he did it."

Batman pushed another few buttons on the computer, rewinding to the point on the footage where Alfred could have sworn he could have made out a figure stood in the doorway of the bar. His fingers moving in a flurry across the keyboard, the Dark Knight magnified the image and enhanced it, making it as clear as possible.

"Oh, dear," Alfred managed.

The figure appeared more than similar to the Flash, complete with pointy earpieces and a lightning bolt motif on the belt and wrists of his costume.

"He certainly bears a passing resemblance, doesn't he?"

Batman got to his feet, pushing the chair back. "It's not him."

"But, Master Bruce… how do you know?"

"I _know_, Alfred. He didn't do it," he replied, making way over to the Batwing.

"Shall I tell Master Timothy to 'mind the shop' while you are away, sir?"

The hatch to the Batwing slid open. The Dark Knight opened his mouth to reply, but then paused. "_After _he's finished his homework."

Alfred smiled. "Very good, Master Bruce. Godspeed."

Batman hopped inside the Batwing and shut the hatch, speeding away towards Central City as fast as possible.

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The armchair made a satisfying flumping noise as he collapsed into it, his body feeling like a dead weight. And today had been a _quiet _day. Well, quiet by Steel City's standards. There was one thing Roy Harper was certain of, though; the City was very different from when he first moved here. Of course, back then had had backup in the form of four superheroes (well, three, technically; two of them were practically the same person).

Roy snorted derisively at himself.

_Listen to yourself. Whining about how busy you are. If Ollie could hear you now, he'd laugh until he was blue in the face._

With a weary hand, he reached over for the remote control and turned on the TV positioned in front of the chair.

"_-our top story, the Flash was recently accused of destroying the drinking establishment Gambi's Bar, as well as attacking and severely injuring several members of the Central City Rogue's Gallery. Mark Mardon, otherwise known as the Weather Wizard, has yet to regain consciousness. Justice League Government Liaison Officer King Faraday had this to say-"_

Roy quickly pulled himself from his armchair and made his way down to his armoury, where he found his Teen Titans communicator. Switching it on, he tuned into Flash's frequency.

"Flash? Flash, are you there?"

Nothing. Not even static. Roy shrugged. He wasn't exactly surprised; Wally was more a member of the League than of the Titans now. Not that Roy begrudged the speedster for that – after all, he wasn't exactly a regular member himself. He tuned the communicator to another frequency.

"Nightwing? Nightwing, it's Roy. Pick up."

Static plagued the return transmission. _"…Roy? ...that you?"_

"Yeah. Listen, have you heard the news about Wally yet?"

"… _no. I haven't really… access… anything…"_

"Where are you?"

"_Well, we're on… way…-"_

"Whoa, whoa. 'We'? Who's 'we'?"

"_Me… the… Titans. Sorry buddy, but I've… go… good…"_

"Nightwing? Nightwing! Dick!"

Roy sighed and let the communicator drop to his side. He couldn't think of anyone else. If Dick was with the Titans, that nixed that idea. Kid Flash was probably with them, too, so out went that possibility. The only other person he could think that would care enough about Wally to help him was Donna, but Roy doubted that she would want to talk to him. Although, if it was for Wally…

The archer shook his head, removing the idea. He didn't even know where the former Wonder Girl was. Considering her new identity of Troia, she could be off galaxy hopping somewhere for all he knew.

Picking up his bow and reloading his arrow satchel, he quickly made his way over to his Justice League earpiece, his earlier exhaustion forgotten.

"I'm comin', Red."

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John floated above Central City, wondering what he looked like to the people walking around down below. A green star? A green blob? Or did they actually realise who was above them and feel excited at his presence? Although he never really gave himself any kind of public identity as the Green Lantern. At least, not to the same extent that say, Superman or especially the Flash had done.

Thinking on the speedster only made him grimace further. Turning, he made his way over to a ridge overlooking the city, to allow himself some time off from the constant concentration of sustaining himself in the air. Usually, it was effortless, but he had spent half a day travelling back to Earth after his previous mission with J'onn and some other members of the Lantern Corp, and he was feeling completely drained. If Wally hadn't been indisposed, he would have invited the speedster along, especially considering how well he and Kilowog got along.

John landed and sighed as the green aura around him faded. His last conversation with his red headed friend had not gone well. His tired and irritable demeanour, coupled with Wally's frantic and confused response to the allegations only led to more unpleasantness.

"_You don't think it could be Grodd, do you?"_

_John shook his head. "No. Last the Secret Society heard of him, he was ejected out of an airlock quite a few light years from here. Even if he somehow survived in outer space, he couldn't have drifted back here by now."_

"_How long would it take him?"_

"_A **long** time."_

"_Oh. Okay."_

_Flash paused and looked over at the clock._

"_Oh, geez!"_

"_What?"_

"_I've got a date with Linda."_

"_Linda? Who's-" John stopped himself short. "Never mind. Look, there's no way you're leaving now!"_

"_What?"_

"_Are you crazy? What if whatever happened to you last night happens again while you're out with this Linda? What if you kill her in some mind controlled rage?"_

"_I wouldn't do that."_

"_How do you know?"_

"_I just **wouldn't**, okay? There is no way I would ever hurt Linda, just like there's no way you'd hurt Shay-" Flash paused. "Never mind."_

_John scowled. "Haven't you learnt to leave that alone yet?"_

"_What? You and Shayera?"_

"_There **is **no 'me and Shayera'!"_

"_Is that right?"_

"_Yes, that's right!"_

"_Then why were you so pissed off with Hawkman, huh?"_

"_He was getting in the way. That had nothing to do with Shayera."_

"_Right. Just like this has nothing to do with when Luthor took over my body."_

_John opened his mouth, and then closed it again, stunned to silence by Flash's reply. "That's not fair, Wally."_

"_Isn't it? That's what you're worried about, isn't it? That I'll go and wreck everything just like he did? I have more control than that, John! Have **some **faith in me. I mean, dude, even Hawkman believed in me, and I've known him for what, a few days?"_

"_You're comparing me to Hawkman?"_

"_Yeah, and right now, he's seeming a whole lot better than you, let me tell you. Y'know, I was actually looking **forward **to you getting back, so you would stand up for me and trust me. Don't you think I'd trust you if this whole thing was the other way round?"_

_John remained silent, unable to look his friend in the eyes._

"_Right," Wally replied, before shooting off for his date with Linda._

John regretted having planted a tracer in Wally's communicator while they were talking, but felt safer. Wally was right, though. After what Luthor did in Flash's body, he had never quite looked at his friend in the same way again. He had taken down _Captain Atom_, for God's sake. That was no small feat. Even Superman struggled to knock Nathaniel Adams out.

Another sigh was stifled by a sudden dust cloud carried on a gust of wind. John brought his hand to his mouth and coughed, his eyes widening as a figure emerged from the dust kicked up by the shadowy presence's arrival. He brought his ring up to bear until he noticed the outline of the character opposite him. He relaxed.

"Dammit," he said, standing up to his full height. "Warn me the next time you're going to-"

The wind was knocked out of him before he could say anything else. Another faster than light blow cracked against his jaw, and John fell to his weary knees. A lightning fast hand grabbed his wrist and twisted hard and fast, breaking it instantly. John yelled in pain, and his eyes widened as he saw his ring being swiftly removed from his finger.

There was a blur of light and a blast of pain as his attacker struck him again. And again. And again. The barrage continued, shattering bones and snapping cartilage as is attacker showed no mercy in his onslaught.

Then, suddenly, it stopped.

John looked up at his attacker, though his eye sight was severely impaired by the blood trickling down his forehead and into his eyes. The tracking monitor for the device he had planted on Wally fell next to him, and he managed to look over.

The tracking device was out of range. But that made no sense. The only way it could be out of range would be if Wally wasn't even on the planet anymore…

John looked back at his attacker, although even moving his head was the most difficult thing he could imagine.

"You took her away," the shadowy figure hissed.

His attacker charged at him, and John was engulfed by blackness.

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(A/N: I realise that the ending to this chapter was quite similar to that of the last, but there was at least some more plot progression with _this _show of mindless violence. And besides, I would hope that you folks would care more about John getting the snot beaten out of him than Weather Wizard. No offence to you hardcore Weather Wizard fans, all three of you.

Also, some more players coming into… erm… play this chapter. Originally, I was going to have Donna Troy in this story with Roy, but her powers are basically the same as Wonder Woman's, and I'd prefer to have a little variety with the abilities of my guest stars, especially considering they're going to be… well, that would be giving it away, wouldn't it?

And besides, I don't really know the first thing about Donna Troy's character. Sure, I know her history (well, basically), but I don't _really _know how she acts or behaves. Although Gotham Princess's recent story is quickly tutoring me.

As for Nightwing… well, Batman's in this story, and they're both very similar in what they can do fighting wise. Also, I've used Dick in quite a few of my stories already, and I _haven't _used Batman that often, and I liked his relationship with Flash in 'Flash and Substance' and really wanted to revisit that.

And hoorah! I finally had an excuse to put Officers Morillo and Chyre into one of my stories. For those that don't know, Morillo and Chyre are the two cops that Flash interacts the most with in the comics (at least in Geoff Johns' run). I hope that they use them in the new Flash title coming out in the summer, if only to see if we get a glimpse of Morillo's much talked about but never seen wife.

But I digress. Give a hoot! Review!)


	6. Trust

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Chapter Six: Trust**_

Linda Park shoved the door open as hard as she could, not really caring whether it slammed into the wall or not. In fact, anything that could make her entrance more attention-grabbing was a boon.

"Bill," she said, glowering at the man sat at the desk in front of her. "What the hell is _this_?"

She held up the memo that had been handed to her just a few minutes beforehand. The gofer almost hid under a table at the scowl that had spread across Linda's usually mild and pleasant features.

"Looks like a memo," he said dryly.

"Don't give me that. _I _was the one who was supposed to be covering the Senator Muldoon trial, and then I find out you've pawned it off to Rivers? I mean, it's _Rivers_!"

Bill put up his hands defensively. "Just calm down, okay Linda? The kid needs a break. He's been pushing and pushing for something to sink his teeth into, and I think this is it."

"One of the most high profile stories of the year? I don't think so." Linda eyed her superior cautiously. "What's going on, Bill?"

The brunette sat in front of her sighed and leant back in his chair, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses. "Look… Linda… you've been… acting strangely lately, and your work's been suffering. I mean, look at the Bryar scandal. The Linda Park I hired would have gotten an exclusive interview. Or a unique sound bite. Or _something _to beat the competition. I mean, we lost out to Channel 7, Linda. Channel 7! There's something going on with you, and I'm not going to let it ruin any more stories."

Linda crossed her arms huffily. "That's stupid…" she mumbled. It was a resigned kind of mumble that meant 'you're right, but I don't want to admit it'.

Bill smiled. "Glad to see you understand."

"So when do I start getting the good stories?"

"When you start acting like a reporter again."

"Oh, is _that _all?"

Bill smiled good-naturedly, pointing at the door. "Out, Linda."

Linda turned and made her way out, gently closing the door behind her. With a resigned look on her face, she dumped the crumpled memo in the trash and made her way to make-up.

"Hey, Linda!"

She turned to see her camerawoman and good friend in general, Marla Thompson walking briskly behind her to catch up.

"How'd it go?"

"Well, Bill told me that I needed to 'start acting like a reporter' again. What the hell does that mean?"

Marla averted her gaze. "Well… you have been a little… y'know…"

Linda turned to look at her friend. "What?"

"Well… you _have _been acting weird ever since you started seeing this Wally guy… who I've yet to meet, by the way…"

"Oh, come on. Wally's not a problem."

"Maybe not, but you're sure different since you started dating him." Marla paused for a moment. "Whenever that was. You were awfully cagey about it."

"Yeah, well… that was…" Linda trailed off into a string of unintelligible mumbles.

Marla cupped her hand around her ear. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said that Marla should go away now because she's really annoying me," Linda replied, glaring at her friend.

Marla smiled. "You're so easy to tick off, you know that? Does Wally know about your short temper?"

Linda reached the door to her changing room and went in, turning around in the doorway. "No," she said, shaking her head vehemently. She paused. "Well, okay, maybe once."

Letting out a bark of laughter, Marla tried to cover up her amused expression when she saw Linda's annoyed reaction. The reporter went to sit down in her chair. Marla made her way over and leant on the make-up table in front of Linda.

"Cheer up, kiddo. You've just gotta get used to the balance, y'know? Like me and Rick."

Linda sighed. "I know, I know. It's just…"

"You like him, I get it. Hell, you went down to the crime lab and gave his boss an earful, didn't you?"

She covered face with her hand. "God, I wish I hadn't done that," she grumbled. "Wally's boss is probably gonna fire him now."

"Hey, if he's as great as you say, he should be able to get a job anywhere. Maybe as a Flash impressionist…?"

Linda looked over at her incredulously. "What?"

"Oh, c'mon. You're just dying to see him in some skin tight spandex."

"I am not!"

"I can see you blushing through the make-up, Linda."

"That's not blushing, that's… healthy colouration."

The phone began to ring before Marla could comment any further. Linda quickly snatched it up.

"Hello?"

"_Hey, it's me."_

"Wally!"

Marla smiled and pushed herself off the tabletop. "Quick as a Flash…"

Linda scowled and pointed to the door. Marla, still chuckling to herself, made her way out and closed the door behind her.

After waiting for a few seconds, Linda came back to the phone.

"What's up? We still on for Thursday?"

"_Uh… yeah, about that…"_

Linda's expression faltered. "What now?"

"_Well… uh… I've gotta… sorta… go away for a bit."_

"'A bit'? How long's that?"

"_I dunno. A few weeks, maybe."_

"A few weeks? Why?"

"_It's, uh… work stuff. I'm really sorry."_

Linda buried her face in her hand.

_Oh, crap. His boss probably went crazy._

"Wally… uh… I…"

"_It's no problem, really. I'll be back before you know it."_

"No, Wally, that's not what-" Linda sighed. "Listen, I, uh…"

"_What's up?"_

A voice came from the other side of the phone.

A female voice.

"_Huh?" _There was a pause. _"Uh… sure. Listen, Linda, I've really gotta go. I'll give you a call when I get back, okay?"_

Linda frowned. This wasn't about his boss punishing him. This sounded like he was being taken to prison or something.

"Wally? Is everything okay?"

Wally snorted on the other end. _"What? Everything's fine. Quit worrying. See you later, okay?"_

Linda's frown deepened. "…okay."

"_Goodbye, Linda."_

"Bye."

Linda heard a click and then a dial tone. Slowly, she put the phone back down. She leaned back in her chair and stared at the phone intently, sorting through what had just happened. Something was up with Wally in that phone call, and it sure as hell wasn't anything to do with some problem at work.

She pushed herself up from her chair, grabbing her purse as she went.

Linda was acting like a reporter again.

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Shayera looked over at Wally, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as she saw the tortured look on his face. His eyes glistened, his tears determinedly held in place by denial beneath his mask.

"I couldn't have done that to him."

She looked through the window of the medical bay at the catatonic Green Lantern.

"I wouldn't," Wally said again, his horrified tone being slowly replaced by indignant anger.

"I know, Wally."

"No you don't," he said quietly. "Why else would you bring me up here to the Watchtower?"

Shayera paused, picking her words carefully. "Wally… there could be something wrong with you. We just don't know, and-"

"This wasn't me!" he yelled, turning to face her. "If something was controlling me, it wouldn't be able to make me do this! I _know _it wouldn't!"

"We all like to think that if we were under mind control, we'd be able to break free ourselves, but sometimes we can't. Believe me, I know," Shayera said, and she meant it. She still ached occasionally from that fight at Roulette's Metabrawl stadium. She put a calming hand on the speedster's shoulder. "Look, Wally… I know that you wouldn't do this. But there are so many people who would, and they could be using your body in some way you're not aware of. We're just trying to be on the safe side."

Wally turned back to look at John. "It wasn't me," he said quietly.

Shayera squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "I know, Wally."

"Then don't put me in solitary up here." He turned to face her, his pale blue eyes boring into her sapphires.

"Wally, we've talked about this. You can't-"

"I know, I know. Just hear me out. Don't put me in solitary up _here _at the Watchtower. Put me at the Metro Tower, okay?"

"Why?"

"To show that you still trust me not to run off and kill someone else. By putting me up here you're telling me that you think I did _this_," he said, gesturing to John.

Shayera frowned as she considered it for a moment. "All right. But if you screw this up-"

"Feel free to whack me on the head with your mace," he said, smiling slightly and sadly. "But only you, okay?"

"I wouldn't let anyone else get near you," she replied, a smile of her own spreading across her face.

"Thanks, Shayera."

The two shared a brief silence, their mutual concern for the Green Lantern in the med bay overriding any instinct to make conversation.

"The Corp is sending another Lantern to fill in for him while John's out of commission," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on John.

"Who? Kilowog?"

Shayera shrugged. "Don't know. Mr Terrific sent a message telling them about it, and they sent one back saying they were sending a replacement."

"Oh. Okay."

"We'll wait for him to arrive and then head down to the Metro Tower. In the meantime, you're sticking with me, got it?"

"Sure, sure… but, uh…" Wally glanced through the glass at John. "Could I…?"

Shayera sighed wearily. "Wally, I don't know… if it _was _you, whatever it was might take over again and-"

"-you'll knock me three ways from Sunday before I can even do anything. Shayera, I-" Wally let out a breath. "Please. I _need _to talk to him… even if he won't hear me."

The former Hawkgirl relented. "All right. But I'm coming in with you."

"Uh… okay."

Shayera punched her code into the control panel next to the door, and it slid open obligingly. She gestured for Wally to go inside, and he did so. She made her way into the corner so as to respect his privacy, and the speedster pulled up a chair next to the unconscious Lantern.

"Uh… hi, John. I, uh… I guess you'd be pretty mad at me right now if you were awake. After all, I'm the guy who supposedly put you here."

Slowly, Wally reached up and pulled back his mask, revealing his ruffled red hair.

"I couldn't have done this. I _didn't._ There's just… no way. You know me, John. I get knocked out by Manhunter robots. How could I take _you_ on and _win?_ Hell, even Luthor couldn't do that when he was…"

Flash swallowed loudly.

"Uh… about those things I said before. I didn't mean them, I really didn't. I just… I was a little pissed at the time. But hey, you know all about how that feels, right?" he said, letting out some nervous laughter.

His face fell.

"Dude, seriously, just wake up. Tell them it wasn't me. I _know_ it wasn't me, I just…" Wally's head slowly fell forward, his forehead resting on his hand. "I _couldn't…_"

The door to the med bay opened, and Vixen stepped through. The shock on her face was palpable as Wally scrambled to pull his mask back on. She looked over at Shayera.

"Why's he in here?"

Shayera pushed off from the wall upon which she was leaning, uncrossing her arms in the process.

"He wanted to talk to him."

"And you just let him? After what he did-"

"_Supposedly _did. There's no proof that it was him."

"Maybe not by choice, but we know plenty of people who use mind control. You're putting John in harms way for no good reason."

Shayera stepped forward to say more, but Wally came between them. "Uh… we were just on our way out."

This time, Wally led Shayera out of the room. Vixen took her seat next to John, holding his hand in her right and stroking his head with her left hand.

Shayera lingered at the door briefly.

_Be safe._

She walked on, letting the door slide shut behind her.

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The door to the airlock slid open, and John Stewart's replacement stepped inside. He waited patiently while the door slid shut behind him, and the scanners in the enclosed room got to work.

On the other side, Wally continued to tap his foot nervously.

"It's gonna be Kilowog."

"We don't know, yet. Just calm down." A beeping came from the control panel in front of her. "There. Scan's done."

The door began to slide open. "Hey, Kilo-"

Kyle Rayner stepped through, and Flash's face fell into an odd mix of disappointment, confusion and anger.

"You're not Kilowog."

The brown haired Lantern cocked an eyebrow beneath his domino mask. "Should he be out and about like this?" he said, talking to Shayera while still keeping a cautious eye on the speedster.

"We were waiting for you to arrive first. We're heading down to the Metro Tower to put him under observation."

"So you don't think it was him?"

Flash crossed his arms. "It wasn't."

Shayera sighed. "It could be mind control, it could be an impostor, we just don't know yet. _That's _why we're putting him under observation."

Rayner nodded. "Right… anyway, excuse my manners. Name's Kyle Rayner," he said, extending his hand. Shayera took it.

"Shayera Hol."

The Lantern nodded and turned to Flash, his hand extended. Wally slowly took it.

"Nice to meet you."

"Yeah."

Seeing the… subtle amount of tension building in the room, Shayera stepped forward. "Now that that's over with, how about we get going?"

The two continued their staring contest for a little while longer before finally disengaging and following her down the corridor. As they came to the door, they both paused.

Rayner gestured forward. "After you."

Slowly and cautiously, Flash went through.

This day was just getting better and better.

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The police car turned the corner on its assigned patrol route, going past the bar that had earlier been wrecked by what some were calling the Flash.

The officer in the passenger seat looked over at the driver. "Do you think he did it? The Flash, I mean."

"Nah. No way. The guy's done too much good to suddenly go crazy now. It's some evil guy pretending to be him or somethin'."

The passenger paused for a moment, taking in the destruction so easily wrought on the establishment. "I hope you're right."

The car drove on. If the two hadn't been so engrossed in their conversation, they might have seen a shadowy figure leap across the street and into the wreckage of the bar.

Might.

Batman pulled out his small flashlight, panning it back and forth across the room slowly. Something caught his eye over by where the pool table once was.

It seemed like only yesterday that he, Orion and the Flash had come in here looking for answers, and had come across the Trickster. As he had watched the speedster talk to the crazed criminal, he had felt a little bit of envy trickling through him. He referred to him by first name. Discussed his meds. Flash asked the Trickster to turn himself in, and the very same night, the Trickster did so.

Batman had never been able to talk anyone down, psychotic or otherwise. It was heartening and irritating at the same time. But then again, that described the Flash, at least how he saw the Flash. A good heart, but very annoying.

But a good enough heart that he wouldn't do anything like this, mind control or no. Something shiny flickered across his vision. There, tucked in-between the floorboards, was a small, pointed object. He made his way over and pulled it out, placing it in an evidence bag.

"What is it?"

Using decades of honed experience, Batman whirled on his heel, pulling out a batarang as he did so. He froze as he saw who was stood opposite him.

Hawkman put up his hands. "Easy. I'm not here to fight you. I'm just here to help."

The Dark Knight considered him for a moment, and then put the batarang back in his belt, turning around to pick up the evidence bag.

"It's not needed."

"What?"

"Your help."

"Well, perhaps not, but I would still like to be part of this, if only for the Flash's sake."

Batman stood and made his way out. "It's not required."

"Is it because you don't like me?" Hawkman tilted his head. "Or that you don't trust me?"

"I trust you on the battlefield. That's enough."

He continued towards the door. Hawkman stepped forward.

"Wait. Please. I'm only doing this because I believe the Flash is innocent. Now, I'm not saying you do or would need my help, but if there was something I could do to help him and I wasn't there to do so…" Hawkman sighed. "Well, I wouldn't like that to happen."

The Dark Knight paused at the door, all that was visible of him being his silhouette. Suddenly, he turned, showing Hawkman the evidence bag.

Hawkman squinted as he walked forward. "What is it?"

"It's part of one of the earpieces on Flash's costume."

"Probably taken off during the fight…" he replied, nodding. He looked up at Batman. "What are you planning to do with it?"

"I'm going to take it to the Atom at the Metro Tower for analysis."

"I see. Mind if I come along?"

"I'm not going to stop you."

Hawkman smiled. "Great."

A scowl made its way onto the Dark Knight's face, and Hawkman's smile disappeared.

"Right. Well. I suppose we'd better be going."

He walked past Batman and through the door. Batman looked down in amazement at the evidence bag.

"Wait."

Hawkman paused and turned.

"Do that again."

"What?"

"Walk by me. Do it."

Hawkman considered questioning him, but he decided against it, walking by him again anyway, keeping his eyes on the evidence bag. As he walked past, his eyes widened in amazement as the golden piece of Flash's costume turned a silvery grey. Once he was past the bag, the colours returned to normal. Slowly, he looked down at his axe, and brought it up. He moved it towards the bag, still amazed at how it was changing colours right before his very eyes.

He twisted the hilt of the axe, and Nth metal electricity coursed through the blade, causing it to light up the room. The golden piece of material turned grey, and began to crackle inside the bag. Both Hawkman and Batman stared down at the pointed evidence in amazement.

"Well… that's unusual," Hawkman mused out loud.

Batman couldn't help but agree.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door slid open, and Kyle Rayner stepped through, sipping one cup of coffee and carrying another.

Shayera sat at the computer terminal, watching the Flash in his cell like… a hawk. Kyle grimaced at the horrible pun his brain had just subjected him to.

"Any change?" he said as he reached her, handing over the coffee cup. Shayera gratefully took it.

"Thanks," she said, before looking at the monitors yet again. "And no, there's been no change."

Kyle looked at the monitors. The Flash was lying on his back in his bed, his head resting on his interlocked hands like a pillow.

"This guy's got a lot of friends. Mr Terrific just got a message from a place called New Genesis. Orion, Mr Miracle and Big Barda all say he's innocent, and that they're on their way over."

Shayera smiled and shook her head. "I don't want to know what kind of trouble Orion and Barda can make working together." She pushed a button on the console in front of her. "Hey, Flash. Orion, Mr Miracle and Big Barda are on their way over here to defend you."

The speedster grinned. _"I wondered how long it'd take 'em to find out."_

"Just thought you'd like to know."

"_Yeah. Uh, thanks, Shayera."_

"No problem, Flash."

Shayera cut off the channel. Kyle leaned against the console, sipping his entirely too hot coffee as he looked down at her.

"I take it you and he are close?"

"We're good friends. Have been for years, since the League began."

"I see."

"What?"

"Well… it just seems that your friendship with him might be influencing your judgement."

"Damn right it is."

"It- what?"

"Listen. You might think it's a tactical disadvantage to have me looking after him because I'm his friend. Fine. But I'll be damned before I let anyone else with a more neutral standpoint get near him, and that includes you. Got that?"

Rayner paused for a moment. "I just think you're not seeing this from all angles. You're not even letting yourself even _consider _the possibility that he did it."

"That's because he didn't," a gruff voice interrupted. The two turned to see Roy Harper, the hero publicly known as Speedy, step through the door. He walked over to Rayner and stood nose to nose with him. "And she's smart enough to know that."

"I don't think letting your emotions cloud your judgement is particularly smart."

"And _I _don't think it's smart to start accusing someone of something without knowing the person first. What do you think?"

Rayner stood to his full height. "I think-"

Shayera stood up and moved between them. "Woah, woah. Down boys." She looked over at Speedy. "Good to see you, Speedy."

The archer just nodded in agreement. "Can I talk to him?"

Shayera gestured over to the control panel. "Sure."

Speedy made his way over and opened the channel. "Hey, Red."

Flash paused for a moment, and then leapt out of the bed. _"Speedy?" _A grin quickly grew on his face. _"Speedy! What're you doing here?"_

"Saw that you might be on trouble. Nightwing and the Titans are away, so I thought I'd come over and see what I could do. Maybe shake things up and get you out of there, huh?"

Flash's grin now seemed permanent. _"Right."_

"I'll talk to you in a few."

"_Sure. Talk to you then. Thanks, Speedy."_

"Hey, any time." Speedy closed the channel and turned to Shayera and Rayner. "See? Nothing wrong with him. Now let him out of the there."

Shayera sighed. "It's not that simple. He-"

"So someone with superspeed wrecked a bar. Doesn't make it him. They were a bunch of villains, of course they're gonna finger him!"

"Green Lantern's in the med bay. Cameras all over the city saw _someone _running around on that night _after _Flash said he went to bed."

"Isn't that proof that he didn't do it, if he can't remember it?"

Rayner rolled his eyes beneath his mask. "Geez, you're dense. Why can't you just accept the possibility that he _could _have done this?"

"Because he _couldn't _have done this, wiseass. And if you had any idea who you were talking about, you'd-"

"He's gone."

The two turned to look at Shayera, who was looking at the monitors frantically. Speedy stepped forward.

"What do you mean, 'he's gone'? He was just there a second ago!"

"Well, _now _he's gone. Dammit!" Shayera stood and ran to the door, putting her fingers to her earpiece. "Mr Terrific. This is Shayera. Is the ankle bracelet tracer working?"

"_Clear as a summer's day. He's in downtown Metropolis. Looks like he's stopped in front of the Daily Planet."_

"Where's Superman?"

"_He's off near Mars with J'onn and Wonder Woman; some kind of anniversary. I could try and contact him if you-"_

Shayera shook her head as she made her way into the Metro Tower teleporter room. "No, we've got it." The trio took their places on the teleporter pad, and Shayera nodded to the technician. "Just outside the Daily Planet."

The technician nodded and punched in the command. Shayera closed her eyes as she was teleported.

_Please don't let it be you doing this, Wally. Please._

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(A/N: Ah ha! A cliff-hanger again!

Those of you familiar with the Flash comics _might _be getting some inkling as to what I'm doing, but if you don't, I don't blame you. I'm still being pretty vague.

A lot of ground covered in this one, and I hope I didn't make it seemed rushed.

As for Kyle Rayner… hell, I just like Kyle Rayner. He has a very tense relationship with Wally in the comics (at least he did – now it's more grudging respect), so I wanted an element of that, though it seems that I've got a Speedy/Rayner grudge match going on now. Whatever, it's a fun combination to write.

And not as much of a big part for Carter in this chapter. Not to worry, he comes back in full force next chapter.

Speaking of which, review!)


	7. A Good Offence

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Chapter Seven: A Good Offence**_

Ray Palmer, the costumed scientist known as the Atom held up the evidence bag. Carter hadn't met the Atom before, though he had heard nothing but good things about him. Apparently, he was just a decent guy who just happened to be able to change his size and mass at will.

"And… what exactly _is _it?"

If he had been more emotionally inclined, Batman would have sighed. "Just run the tests."

The Atom frowned, putting the small plastic bag down on the table. "Look, there are a lot of tests I can run on this thing, and it'll help things to go quicker if I know what to look for."

The Dark Knight paused. "Look for anything unusual regarding its composition."

Palmer smiled and nodded. "Right. I can do that. Thank you."

He pushed a button on his belt, and Carter tried not to jump as he heard the thumping noise of the Atom's shrinking device. Slowly and gradually, the scientist became smaller and smaller until he was the size of a children's doll. He looked up at Carter.

"A little help?"

Shaking his head from his amazed reverie, Carter knelt and held out a hand, allowing the Atom to climb on board. He lifted him onto the table top, and let the Atom get to work. Palmer unzipped the bag and took out the piece of Flash's costume they had found at the bar, and made his way over to a machine in the far corner of the room. He opened a small glass cover and placed it inside.

After making sure the glass door was locked shut, the Atom made his way over the keyboard, knelt down, and pushed a few buttons. The machine thrummed to life, and the Atom nodded, satisfied. He pushed a button on his belt, bringing him back up to normal size.

Carter looked over at Batman, who had been completely unfazed by the Atom's display of his powers.

"Sorry about that," Palmer said. "It's just easier for the more delicate operations if I'm smaller."

"How long will it take?" Batman asked. Palmer scratched the back of his head.

"Ten minutes, give or take."

Carter cocked an impressed eyebrow beneath his hawk helmet. "Really? I thought it would take longer than that for such a complex procedure."

The scientist shrugged. "The Metro Tower has some of the finest analytical machines on the planet."

A silence descended over them as the machine continued to do its work. The Atom sat down in his swivelling chair, and started to write some comments on a stack of paper that was gathered on his desk. Hawkman tilted his head to see what they were. The red and blue clad hero looked over at Carter's curious gaze.

"They're term papers. Apparently, some kids seem to think I don't know what the Internet is."

Carter smiled. "I don't know where they could have gotten that impression from."

"Yeah, well, you're over thirty, and they think you're clueless about everything except the 60s and 70s."

He nodded. "Too true."

The Atom cocked his head. "You're Hawkman, right?"

"Yes."

"My wife says hello."

"Oh. Um… thank you."

"She also says a few other things about your bare chest that I'd rather not go into for the sake of my ego."

Carter didn't know whether to laugh or feel embarrassed. "Oh. I… see."

"But still. Nice to meet you. I'm the Atom. But everyone just seems to call me Ray."

The scientist extended his hand, and Carter took it gratefully. "Hawkman. It's a pleasure."

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He looked up at the building towering above him, the repair crews tending to the Daily Planet seeming like small insects on the carcass of a fearsome beast. His eyes thinned beneath his crimson mask.

It shouldn't be there. He knew that much. He _knew _that it was destroyed by… something. Something big. Dark… something. Clutching his hands to his head, he groaned.

Why couldn't he remember? This building wasn't supposed to be here. It was destroyed along with _him_. But… if it was here, then that would mean…

He brought his head up. That would mean that _he _was still here, too. He had died once, then come back again, he remembered that much. Flash definitely recalled _him_ coming back with long hair, a beard and a sword tied to his back. But _he_ had died. He remembered that _he_ had died _after _that, when Dark… something had invaded.

"Flash!"

The Scarlet Speedster turned. Before him stood Shayera, with Kyle Rayner floating to her right, and Speedy on her left. As he saw Shayera, his face fell.

"Shayera…?"

The Thanagarian considered him sceptically. "Flash? Do you… recognise me?"

The speedster ignored her question and took a step forward. Rayner brought his ring to bear, preparing for an attack. Speedy held his ground, though he didn't draw any arrows. Not yet, anyway.

"I…" Flash put a hand to his head. "But you're… you're not…" He yelled in frustration as he clutched his head. "How?"

Suddenly, he brought his head up to look at Shayera. "It's the same trick again, isn't it? I remember. When Scudder tried to trick me with you. It's not going to work." He charged forward.

"It's NOT!"

Rayner formed a basketball sized green fist and sent it flying forward. "Back off!"

It collided with Flash's chest, sending him of his feet and backwards into the air. As he reached the ground, the speedster extended his arms back flipped to his feet, before charging forward at the Lantern again. Rayner fired several blasts of green energy at the approaching speedster, which Flash easily dodged.

With a loud crash, Flash collided with Rayner, sending him back. Using his ring to steady himself, Rayner landed on his feet, the speed of the attack sending him skidding back along the ground slightly. He looked up in time to see Flash approaching again, his fists ready to attack.

Reacting with trained and honed skills, Rayner put up a shield of green energy in front of him. The Flash was undeterred, pummelling the shield with superspeed punches, his fists moving at such speeds that they vibrated through the green energy field. Rayner yelled in pain as his shield exploded in front of him, the feedback tossing him backwards across the ground.

Flash charged forward again. A sudden loud battle cry from his right drew his attention to Shayera, who swung her mace into his chest and sent him flying back, colliding with a parked car and almost causing it to fold in on itself.

The electricity from Shayera's mace danced across the Flash's body. Shayera lifted her mace to attack again, but suddenly paused.

The colours on Flash's costume were changing colours. The red was becoming a much darker shade, almost black, while the usually sparkling gold was becoming a dull, lifeless gray. Gradually, the electricity subsided, and the Flash's costume returned to normal.

A look of betrayal and sadness crossed the speedster's face, before it became knotted in anger. Shayera readied herself for an attack, and was caught off guard when Flash turned and shot off down the road, disappearing into the distance. She relaxed and turned to help Rayner up, and saw that Speedy was already there.

"Anything broken?"

Rayner dismissively slapped Speedy's hand away, getting to his feet himself. "No, nothing's broken. No thanks to you. Where were you back there?"

"Excuse me if I don't feel like beating the crap out of one of my best friends."

"Well, he's sure as hell not acting like your friend now, so you'd better change your attitude!"

"Couldn't you see he was confused? There's obviously something going on up there, something really wrong. And you're not helping by blasting away at him with that fancy ring!"

"What was I supposed to do? Let him kill Shayera?"

"He wouldn't have killed her!"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know him! He's not a killer!"

"Well, you obviously didn't know him as well as you thought."

Shayera, meanwhile, was still looking at her mace, wondering exactly what had happened after she had struck the speedster.

"Nth metal?" she mused quietly.

"What?"

She turned to look at Speedy. "Flash. He changed colours when I hit him with this," she said, gesturing to her mace. "And this is made of Nth metal."

Rayner, now beginning to calm down, crossed his arms in thought, bringing his left hand up to stroke his chin. "If I remember right, Nth metal has properties that interfere with magic."

Speedy cocked an eyebrow at Shayera. "Do you think that there's something magical going on here?"

"After what just happened, I wouldn't rule it out," she said, bringing her hand to her earpiece. "Mr Terrific, we lost him."

"_So have we. He's moving too fast; he's all over the place. We'll have to wait for him to slow down or stop before I can get you to him."_

She groaned in frustration. "All right. Three for transport."

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Linda knocked on the door of the apartment yet again. "Wally? C'mon, Wally, I _know _you were making that stuff up on the phone. I've just come here through this storm to see if you were okay, and it's freakin' _freezing _out here. Let me in."

She waited for a response.

Nothing.

She sighed. She leant over and checked through the keyhole. Linda had to admit, Wally was doing one hell of a job pretending not to be in. Maybe he actually was going away, but it was for a reason he didn't want her to know about. But what the hell could it be? Since she had known him, he had had no qualms with telling her anything embarrassing or humiliating about himself. He seemed to find it funny himself most of the time. And likewise, she had felt the same kind of openness and comfort with him. It was that comfort that made her think there was a future between them.

But now…

Recently, he had been acting so strangely, even for Wally. She had learned to live with his unexplained absences from time to time, but this was just strange. He had never called her before with anything like this. If this was his way of breaking up with her, he could have found a simpler way to do it.

She brought her hand up to knock again, when she felt something lift her off her feet. In a few seconds, she felt raindrops on her face, and just as quickly, they were gone, and she was once again on her feet.

She looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was in the Flash Museum, which had only just been reopened for business after Flash's battle with the Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold and Mirror Master. It was after hours, and the usually gaudy and happy lights were replaced by a haunting darkness. An occasional bolt of lightning lit the large room.

She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a shadowy figure stood next to her. Her shock subsided as she recognised the white eyes of his mask and pointy earpieces.

"Oh… Flash, it's you…" she looked around the room. "Um… not that I'm not… um… flattered, but… why am I here?"

Flash was silent. He just reached forward and stroked her cheek with the back of his gloved hand. "You're… you're still…"

He turned and walked away from her before she could respond, looking up and around the building. "How? How is it still here?"

Linda cocked an eyebrow. "Um… why is _what _still here?"

"This!" he said, bringing out both of his arms in an encompassing gesture. "It's supposed to be gone! Kadabra… he… it's gone…"

Linda placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. "I… Flash… what are you talking about? What do you mean?"

He whirled on his heel to face. "I _mean_…" he paused as his eyes widened beneath his mask. "You… you're just like that… that _Shayera…_"

"Shayera? Shayera Hol? You mean Hawkgirl?"

"She wasn't real…" he glared at her, stepping forward threateningly. "And neither are you."

He reached out to grab her, and she turned and ran for the door. Flash was in front of her before she could even move, roughly holding her by the arms.

"Who are you! Why are going this!"

"I… I…"

A blast of green energy nailed Flash in the small of his back. He yelled in pain as he lost his grip on Linda and fell to one knee. The reporter looked up and saw Shayera Hol, a red haired man on her left with a bow, and someone who was dressed like Green Lantern on her right. Shayera looked directly at her.

"Run."

Linda didn't need any more coaxing. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, unmindful of the torrent of rain that almost instantly drenched her from head to toe as she stepped outside the museum.

Flash got to his feet, growling in anger. Shayera twisted the hilt of her mace, bringing it to life with crackling energy.

"Flash… don't make me do this. Just come back with us to the Metro Tower."

"There _is _no Metro Tower, liar!"

Shayera was taken aback by the ferocity of Flash's words. It was also the most coherent thing to come out of Wally's mouth since he had escaped from his holding cell.

The Thanagarian was knocked from her thoughts as Flash charged at them, once again going for Rayner. The young Lantern fired a blast of green energy at the speedster's feet, but Flash merely leapt up and at Rayner. He latched onto Rayner as he leapt, taking him back down with him. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Flash was away at superspeed, taking the Lantern with him.

Shayera and Speedy could do nothing but stand there as Flash disappeared from view in an instant.

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Rayner tried to concentrate. To do something. The world was shooting past at such a dizzying pace; it was all the Lantern could manage to keep his green force field up and running.

Suddenly, he felt something change. Looking down, he realised that Flash had jumped up into the air. The speedster began spinning in midair, and the entire world became a red blur. Rayner tried to bring his ring up, but found himself held in place by the colossal winds.

Suddenly, Flash let go of him, tossing him diagonally into the air. Rayner could do nothing as he shot through the clouds and into the stratosphere. He looked up, seeing the black emptiness of space above him. He finally managed to slow his rapid ascent, and came to a halt just above the Earth.

Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Rayner sighed. God, that guy was fast. He reached up to his earpiece, and found that it was missing.

_Must have been cut loose during the whole spinning thing._

He looked from his left to his right, and back again, wondering in which direction the Watchtower would be. Choosing left, he shot off in that direction, hoping he would be able to make it back down to Earth in time to do anything useful.

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Atom frowned. "I've never seen anything like this before."

Carter leaned forward in curiosity, though Batman beat him there.

"What is it?"

Palmer looked over at the Dark Knight. "It's… well, take a look for yourself. There's something wrong with its vibration frequency."

Batman looked at the readouts from the Atom's analysis. He froze as he realised something. Suddenly he turned to Carter, putting his fingers to his communicator.

"Mr Terrific, where's Flash?"

"_He's in Central City. I sent Shayera, Lantern and Speedy down there after him."_

He nodded. "Right. Batman out." Looking up at Carter, he pointed a commanding finger at him. "Go to Central City. Slow him down, keep him distracted, whatever, it doesn't matter. Just make sure that he stays in Central City."

The Dark Knight turned and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Carter asked.

"No time."

And with that, the World's Greatest Detective was gone. Carter turned to look at the Atom, who was still sat in his chair.

"Do _you _know what that was about?"

The scientist shrugged. "I just know that when Batman tells you to do something, you'd damn well better do it."

Carter nodded. "Right."

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"Lantern? Lantern, come in." Shayera growled in frustration. "Rayner, do you read?"

Speedy frowned. "What the hell could've-?"

He stopped in mid-sentence as the Flash appeared in front of them, stood at the foot of the statue that had been erected in his honour in front of the museum.

"Where's Lantern?" Shayera asked, activating her mace. The heavy rain sizzled and spat as it came in contact with the crackling weapon.

Flash cocked his head to the side. "He's not GL."

"No, he's not. You put _him_ in the med bay, remember?"

"He took her away from me."

Speedy grimaced. "What?"

"Lantern. He took her away."

Shayera tried to adopt a calm yet cautious stance, not wanting to get caught off guard. Though with Wally at this range, it was difficult _not_ to be caught off guard.

"Took who away, Wally?"

She had decided to forgo codenames. Rayner wasn't here. Shayera and Speedy both knew Flash's secret identity, and no-one in their right mind would be near here in this weather. And maybe using his real name would help her get through to him.

Flash frowned beneath his crimson cowl. "What?"

"Wally, it's okay. You don't need to-"

"Who's Wally?"

Even Speedy couldn't keep his defensive stance after that. "_You _are, buddy."

"No I'm not."

Shayera nodded. "That's your name. Wally West."

"Stop it."

"Please… Wally… try to think… your name is Wally West. You're a member of the Justice League."

Speedy nodded. "You used to be a Teen Titan."

Flash clutched his hands to his head. "Stop it!"

Both Shayera and Speedy froze, expecting an attack. Shayera glanced over at the archer on her left, who had instinctively reached for the arrow satchel on his back. He paused in that position, ready to attack if needs be.

Shayera took a step forward. "So… what _is _your name, if it's not Wally?"

Flash whipped his head up to look at her, adopting a fighting ready stance. "You'll never know."

Shayera took a step back and readied herself.

The three stood completely still, one almost daring the other to make a move.

Shayera twisted her hands around her mace slightly for a better grip.

Flash unclenched and clenched his fists.

Speedy moved one of his arrows up the smallest of inches.

That was enough for Flash. He charged at Speedy and swung his fist forward, colliding with the archer's jaw and tossing him backwards.

Shayera leapt forward, bringing her mace back behind her head and slicing it down at Flash's head. The speedster hopped back and grabbed the hilt of the mace with both hands, swinging it and Shayera around and into the wall behind her.

Speedy got to his feet and prepared an electrified arrow.

Using her wings, Shayera managed to steady herself in midair and flipped herself around so her legs came into contact with the wall first. She crouched against the wall and kicked off with all her strength, sending her hurtling towards the speedster, her mace brought back for another blow.

Speedy released his arrow.

The Fastest Man Alive sidestepped the arrow and snatched it out of midair, driving it into Shayera's gut before she could even think about moving out of the way. The Thanagarian yelled in agony as thousands of volts of electricity flowed through her. Once the arrow's charge was spent, it exploded, sending Shayera back and into the wall, knocking her unconscious.

Flash turned his attention to Speedy, who had let loose another arrow. He ducked beneath the projectile and charged towards the archer, bringing his left hand across and out at superspeed to slice the bow in half, and bringing his right hand up in an uppercut. Speedy could do nothing as Flash subject him to a bombardment of superspeed punches before grabbing him by the shoulders and tossing him into the unconscious Shayera at superspeed.

The speedster stopped to take account of what he had just done. Hearing a groan come from Speedy, he began to make his way towards the two, intent on finishing the job.

"Stop!"

He turned to see Hawkman descending from the sky, a large black mace in each hand, the weapons glistening in the rain.

A confused look crossed the Flash's face. "Who…?"

Carter touched down on the ground. "I don't know what's going on, Flash, but I can't let it go on. Look at what you've done. Look!"

The speedster glanced over his shoulder at the unconscious Speedy and Shayera.

"They were your friends, Flash. They trusted you, defended you. They didn't deserve this. And I don't know why you thought they _did_."

"Be quiet."

Hawkman cocked his head. "Why? Don't you like hearing the truth? That you've become a monster that doesn't even value his friends?"

"BE QUIET!"

Flash shot forward. Keeping as calm and loose as possible, Carter sidestepped to his left and swung out the mace in his right hand, slamming it into Flash's stomach. The blow sent him hurtling back and across the courtyard of the museum until he came to a stop below one of the flagpoles sporting a Flash symbol.

The Flash's costume crackled from the contact with Carter's electrified mace, changing the colours as they had with Shayera. Hawkman's eyes thinned beneath his helmet.

"I told you, Flash. I'm not going to let you continue doing this."

Clutching his stomach, Flash pulled himself to his feet. "You don't… have a choice."

"Why are you doing this? I thought I knew you. Why?"

"You don't know me. I don't even know who you are! How could you possibly know who I am?"

"You're the Flash. You're the continuation of a legacy of heroes who have risked their lives time and time again to safe others. What do you think _those _heroes would think of what you're doing?"

"You shut up."

"I read up on you, Flash. I know that I there was a Flash before you, and a Flash before him. The first's name was Jay Garrick. He served in World War Two, defending innocent people from the kind of person you've become!"

"SHUT UP!"

Once again, the speedster came at him, this time managing to knock the mace from Carter's right hand. Hawkman brought his left mace around and caught Flash in the side, sending him hurtling back and through the double glass doors of the museum. He skidded across the carpeted floor before coming to a gradual halt. He slowly picked himself up, groaning as he knelt on all fours, seemingly ignorant of the electricity dancing across him and the effect it was having on his costume.

Carter looked over at the speedster. "The second Flash was your mentor. You were Kid Flash. He raised you and taught you how to be a hero. Is _this _the kind of hero he wanted you to be?"

He kicked off from the ground and flew towards the speedster, gripping the mace with both hands. He swung it down at the still recovering Flash, who quickly rolled out of the way before it could make contact. The mace slammed into the ground, leaving an indentation there.

Moving faster than Carter's eye could see, Flash placed one foot on the mace and leapt up with the other, slamming a supersonic knee into Carter's chin, and sending him flying back.

Carter steadied himself with his wings in time to see Flash running at him while carrying his mace, bringing it up and around into his face. As he spoke, each word was accompanied by another blow to Carter by his own mace.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"SHUT…"

Flash whirled on the spot and brought the mace into Carter's face yet again.

"…UP!"

His helmet flew from his head, landing with a clang on the far side of the museum. Carter was tossed back by the blow like a rag doll, slamming into the wall beside the smashed glass doors. Before Carter could even fall to the ground, Flash had jammed Carter's head into the wall with his forearm, holding him in place by his neck.

He brought back the mace, ready to deliver the killing blow.

Flash yelled in pain as a batarang collided with his wrist, making him drop the mace on the ground behind him. He looked to the doorway and saw a bat shaped shadow disappear from view. Flash looked back at the beaten and bruised Hawkman before releasing him, letting him crumple to the floor.

The Scarlet Speedster zipped to the empty doorway, coming face to face with Batman, who was holding a large white device in his hands. A device that seemed familiar to Flash, though he couldn't remember where he…

Shayera groaned as she slowly emerged from unconsciousness. She looked up and assessed the situation, her eyes widening in panic as she saw the device that Batman now held in his hands.

"Batman… no."

"It's the only way, Shayera."

"No… we can find another way. You don't have to-"

"There _is _no other way. This is it."

Shayera tried to get up.

But before she could do anything, Batman had taken aim with the Phantom Zone generator and fired.

The Flash was engulfed instantly.

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(A/N: I was looking forward to writing this cliff-hanger for so long… I hope it has the desired effect.

As those of you who read the comics may already know, the Atom and Hawkman are best buddies in the comics, being, as Wally describes them, 'like the Odd Couple', much in the same way that Flash and Green Lantern are. Now, while I'm probably not going to go into detail in regards to their friendship, I wanted to put some element of that in there, since I can see the DCAU versions becoming good buddies too.

Some of you may know what's going on with Wally at this point, and some of you may not. It _is _comics related, though I have twisted it around a bit here and there to make it suitably different from the comics.

It's actually been awhile since I've done a big action scene like this, so I hope it didn't drag too much. I attempted to make sure there was some dialogue in there as well, so it wasn't just one being description-fest. Honesty please!

Now, it came to my attention while watching 'The Great Brain Robbery' that it's now been established in the show that the reason that Flash doesn't vibrate through things is because it makes them explode. Which, y'know, makes sense. It also makes situations like Flash being tied up in 'Legends' in Season One more bearable (Although why he got stuck in an ice cube is beyond me, since in 'Speed Demons' he melted through a block of ice with no difficulty, but that's neither here nor there).

And that explanation is fair enough, except I've had Flash vibrating through stuff in my stories all the time. So, here's my explanation of why Flash can vibrate through stuff in my stories without making them go boom (as a fanboy who is anally obsessed with putting his stories in continuity, I _must _do this by law):

When Flash vibrates through stuff, he makes them blow up. But, if he concentrates _real _hard and takes his sweet time, he can vibrate through things _without_ making them explode. Simple, eh?

As the for the fact that Kid Flash in 'Lightspeed' could vibrate through the wall with no problem (assuming you're putting _Teen Titans _and _Justice League Unlimited _in the same continuity), let's just say that as Wally got older, he got faster and more powerful, hence why stuff blows up when he vibrates through it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how much of a nerd I am.

Anyway, review!)


	8. Vindication

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Chapter Eight: Vindication**_

Shayera couldn't bring herself to watch as the Flash screamed in pain. She had researched into the Phantom Zone and its capabilities, and nowhere had she found evidence that it caused such pain to its victims.

She looked over at Batman, who seemed to be struggling to hold the generator steady, though not from any lack of emotional resolve. It seemed as though there were some kind of feedback coming from what he was doing to the Flash.

Shayera frowned. Shouldn't Flash be gone by now?

She heard Speedy groan beside her.

"Oh…" he groaned, putting a tentative hand on his head. "What…" his words caught in his throat as he saw what was happening to Wally. He looked over at Batman and got to his feet as fast as he could manage. Which wasn't very fast. "What is he doing!"

He tried to launch himself forward, but Shayera held him back. He looked over at her angrily. "What the hell are you doing? He's killing him!"

"No, he's not. Look."

The archer looked over at the swirling of black and white energy, the bright dancing red dots in its epicentre making him wince slightly.

"What's going on?"

Shayera just shook her head dumbly. She could make out the body of the Flash beneath the swirling energy, but there was something happening.

He was being stretched in two different directions.

Gradually, slowly, and what looked very painfully, the Flash was stretched outwards, his screams becoming drowned out by the noise of the Phantom Zone generator, which seemed to be giving Batman even more trouble.

Then, suddenly, the energy output from the generator stopped, and there was a blinding flash. Shayera and Speedy both put their hands up to block out the intense light, although some seeped through their closed eyes and sent spots spinning around their vision.

Shayera opened her eyes gradually, trying to blink the dancing colours away. Through the haze of flashing lights, Shayera could have sworn she could see two bodies where the Flash had once been; one lying on the ground, the other kneeling. As her sight returned to her, she saw that there were indeed two Flashes in front of her. One wearing the red and gold she was used to and lying on the ground, the other wearing an unfamiliar dark red and grey, who was slowly getting to his feet.

Batman took a step back at the sight of the dark Flash.

The dark Flash took in his surroundings, as though only just seeing them for the first time, seemingly uncaring about the rain that drenched him from head to toe. Gradually, he brought his head down to see Batman stood in front of him.

"You..."

The Dark Knight stood his ground as the dark Flash addressed him.

Shayera tried to stand, but found she was still woozy from the beating that Flash had given her. Looking over, she saw that Speedy was having the same problem.

"You thought I was dangerous. _You _took her away. Tried to hide her from me."

He charged forward and slammed into Batman, knocking him back. The Phantom Zone Generator flew from his grip and fell to the side, clanging loudly as it skidded across the sidewalk.

Batman fell back and flipped to his feet, pulling out several batarangs as he adopted a defensive position. The dark Flash continued his speech.

"But I started to find her, didn't I? And still, you tried to take her away. I don't know how you're back, or if any of this is even real, but I am _not _going to let you take her away again, whether she's real or not."

The Dark Knight thinned his eyes beneath his cowl. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The dark Flash smiled. "Why am I not surprised, 'Bats'? You know, you're a pretty good simulation. You definitely look stubborn enough." He crouched in a running position. "But you're still just a cheap imitation. And if I killed the real Batman, how do you think you're gonna do?"

He shot towards Batman, dodging and knocking away all the batarangs that the Dark Knight threw at him. He swung his fist around into Batman's jaw, satisfied at the crunching noise that accompanied the blow. He followed it up with several more superspeed punches before delivering an uppercut that tossed Batman away and across the street into a parked car.

With the Dark Knight suitably out of the way, the dark Flash turned his attention to the unprotected Phantom Zone generator. He smiled and ran towards it, his fist drawn back.

A blur of lighter red slammed into the dark Flash, sending him hurtling across the street like a bullet and into the wall of a building opposite. A miniature crater formed on the wall from the force of the impact, and the dark Flash fell to the floor.

Shayera smiled as she saw the source of the blur.

"Dude, seriously. Don't go touching other people's stuff."

The dark Flash got to his feet, and his eyes widened as he saw who had hit him. There, stood opposite him, was the Flash, dressed in the gold and red costume that had become his trademark.

"Who… Barry?"

The Scarlet Speedster gave pause at that. "Who are you?"

"Don't screw around with me! Are you Barry Allen?"

"No! Who the hell are you?"

The dark Flash nodded, smiling bitterly. He looked up to the sky. "Oh, I get it. Trying to remind me of the hero I used to be, huh? Trying to get me to realise the error of my ways?"

"Dude. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't you DARE play dumb with me!"

"I'm not playing dumb! I just don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

The Flash look-alike just scowled. "I don't have time for this. If I don't save her, no-one will."

An eyebrow rose beneath Wally's mask. "Who?"

"Linda!"

"Don't you go near her," Wally said, his expression darkening beneath his costume.

"You can't stop me. You might look the part, but there's no way you're as fast as me."

The Flash crouched in a running position.

"Try me, jocko," he muttered, glaring darkly at his counterpart.

The two speedsters stared at each other.

Then they sped away, leaving a cloud of dust and water in their wakes as they ran down the drenched roads.

The dark Flash darted over at Wally, trying to slam into him. Wally leapt up and rested his hand on his doppelganger's shoulder, using it as a springboard to flip clean over him and land on the other side. The two came to a halt, and Wally gave the dark Flash a cheery wave. The darker Flash growled in anger.

He sped over towards Wally, swinging his fist forward. His fist broke the sound barrier as it connected, and a loud cracking noise filled the air shortly after the impact. Wally turned with the impact and whirled around, countering with a blow of his own and sending another miniature sonic boom out into the city. The dark Flash stumbled back and away from Wally.

The two stood opposite one another, each wiping the blood from their bottom lips. After shooting each other a fierce grin, they sped away once again.

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Shayera limped over to Batman, who was using the crumpled car behind him to lever himself to his feet.

"Are you okay?"

"I've just been slammed into a car at a speed usually reserved for bullets."

Shayera ignored the comment. "What did you do to him?"

Batman shook his head. "Not him. _They._"

"They?"

The two looked over to see Speedy walking towards them, holding his head tenderly.

"Yes, they. We were seeing two Flashes. One from our reality, and one from another."

Shayera's eyes widened. "He's from another dimension…"

Batman nodded. "He was switching places with Flash at random intervals. I think it has something to do with Weather Wizard's wand. My guess is that it was mystically modified by Grodd while he was a member of the Secret Society."

Hawkman stumbled over to them, gingerly trying to place his helmet on his head. "Which would explain why our Nth metal weapons had such an effect on him."

"Exactly."

"But why did his costume stay red and gold when he was in our reality? Surely if he was switching places, we'd have seen his red and grey colours."

"I don't know the exact mechanics of it," Batman said somewhat irritably, rubbing the back of his neck sorely.

Shayera looked over at Carter. "Magic's involved. It's pretty safe to say that logic won't apply."

Speedy put up his hands in a surrendering fashion. "Woah, woah, woah. Hold up. Are you telling me that I was holding back on someone that wasn't even Wally?" He looked over at Carter. "I mean Flash?"

Shayera and Batman both shot a glare at the archer, who just shrugged in response. "He was gonna find out anyway…" he offered weakly.

Hawkman smiled. "It's all right. I know how to keep a secret."

"You'd better," Batman replied, though the statement didn't sound particularly threatening.

Carter had no doubt that it was, though.

Their conversation was interrupted as something came their way.

Fast.

Two red blurs shot by them, and a second later, the group were deafened and knocked aside by the sonic boom.

"What the hell was that?" Speedy yelled, covering his ears.

"They're moving past the speed of sound," Batman replied.

"Every movement, every blow… they'll destroy half the city if they keep it up," Carter said, marvelling at how fast his speedster comrade could actually move. God, he had barely even seen him.

Another sonic boom assaulted their ears, though this one was further away.

Batman looked over at Carter. "If you think you can stop them, you're welcome to try."

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This was a first for Wally. He had never faced someone on a par with him when it came to speed. Oh, sure, there was that Justice Lord Flash robot that Luthor and Brainiac had made, but that couldn't come anywhere near matching him for speed.

He had trained with his two predecessors, but nothing this intense. It was the same with his sidekick, Kid Flash. Though they had pitted their skills against one another, it had never been serious.

The only other person he had ever put his speed against was Superman, and even that wasn't much of a contest. Flash was always slightly faster on average than the Man of Steel, and when he really pushed himself, Wally could leave Clark behind him in a matter of minutes.

Not that he'd ever fight the Big Blue Boy Scout. One well placed punch and it'd be bye, bye Wally.

As it was, this was a very new experience for Wally, and he wasn't sure how he was faring. He and his doppelganger/clone/whatever were colliding like two pin balls, building up momentum by running around the city and then charging into one another, one hoping to knock the other out of the race.

The last collision had forced Wally behind the darker Flash slightly, but he was gradually catching up, although the rapid twists and turns his opponent was taking didn't help.

Suddenly, the dark Flash stopped and turned, his right arm extended outwards in a clothesline move.

Wally tried to put on the brakes, but his momentum was too much; he was running at somewhere around mach 5, and stopping on a dime just wasn't possible at those speeds.

He collided with the dark Flash's arm at supersonic speeds, sending out the loudest sonic boom yet. The blow sent him hurtling forward and landing almost on his head, throwing him down the street at such speeds he didn't stop skidding down the road for nearly a mile. Gradually, Wally managed to hurl himself to his feet and slow himself down, but by then, he had gone nearly seven blocks. He looked back at his opponent and saw a red blur disappear around a corner in the distance. Grating his teeth together, he took off in pursuit.

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Linda ran down the street. And ran. And ran.

She had no idea what was going on. She had been going to her boyfriend because he was making up excuses on the phone about not being able to see her.

That was normal.

That was regular.

That was an ordinary, boring, everyday occurrence.

How the hell did that turn into a crazy Flash kidnapping her and taking her to the Flash Museum, where he then started to yell at her for not being Linda? Not only that, but three other Justice League members arrived as though they were going to _fight _the Flash.

If she hadn't been scared beyond belief, her reporter's instinct probably would have found those series of events interesting. As it was, she just hoped that the League could handle the Flash.

Linda froze as she heard something in the air. As she gasped for breath, she looked up and down the street. In the distance, she could make out a cloud of dust heading towards her. Her eyes widened, and she turned, the intellectual part of her knowing that she couldn't possibly outrun the Flash, but the instinctual part of her telling her to run anyway.

Suddenly, she was knocked from her feet and scooped up into two strong arms. She looked up at the face of her captor, and wondered what she could do against him. If she managed to trip him up somehow, the resulting crash would probably kill both of them. Her intellectual side kicked in and decided to simply let him take her wherever he wanted to go.

They came to a stop in the middle of Central City Park, where the fountain was now overflowing from the downpour of rain from the storm. She and Wally came here quite often, though fond romantic thoughts were the last thing on her mind at the moment. The Flash put her down, and Linda instantly noted that his costume was different. The red was a much darker shade than usual and the gold was now a dull and lifeless grey. It was as though someone had sucked the life out of the Flash's costume.

He walked over to the fountain, staring up at it. "Do you remember it, Linda?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him sceptically, but remained silent.

"This is where we came when I…" his head hang forward and he laughed slightly. "… I remember you hit me for being so cheesy, proposing to you here of all places. And the way I did it… God, I was such a dork…"

Linda's sceptical expression gave way to one of complete and utter confusion. "I think you've got me confused with someone else."

He smiled as he turned around, nearly frantic as he came towards her. "No, I don't. To begin with I thought you were just some illusion conjured up by my one-time friends to try and get me to stop doing what I've been doing, but now…"

A dark red gloved hand reached for her, not even daring to touch her face as though he were afraid of her shattering in his very fingertips.

"…now I know… you may not be _my _Linda, but you're Linda Park. And that means we can still be together, you and me."

"Um… not that I'm not flattered, Flash, but… I don't really know you."

He put up his hands to try and calm her. "I know I wasn't making much sense back there, but that was because I wasn't all there. But now… you don't have to worry, Linda. It's me, Walter."

"I don't know any Walter."

At first, it seemed as though he might explode with rage again, but then he suddenly calmed down and smiled. "That's right," he said, snapping his fingers. "He's not called Walter here. He's called… what was it…? Ah, that's right. I'm W-"

He stopped in mid-sentence as Linda felt a gust of wind come from behind her. She turned to see the Flash, dressed in the familiar scarlet and gold, stood before her, shining like a beacon in the dark and cloudy surroundings. A hand grabbed her by the arm and pulled at her.

"Get behind me, Linda," the dark Flash said, yanking her around so that she was behind him.

"No, Linda, don't," Flash said, gazing straight into her eyes. "Just run. Get away from him. Get away from me. It's the only move that makes sense, and you know it."

Linda felt a chill go up her spine. Never, in her entire time in Central City, had she heard the Flash sound so serious, even in a tense situation. He was always ready with a wisecrack or disarming comment, making sure that tensions didn't run too high.

But this time, there were no jokes.

She backed away from the dark Flash, who turned to look at her, betrayal wrought on his features.

"Linda… don't. He's not real. He's… well, he _is_ real, but he's not _me._ He's not the one who married you. He's not the one who made Central City safe again."

Linda paused for a moment, much to the panicked look on the lighter Flash's face.

"What do you mean 'made Central City safe'?"

"He killed you. Zoom. So first I got rid of him. And then I got rid of the Rogues. All of them."

"You… killed them?"

He nodded. "It was the only way to show them… to tell them that I wouldn't let anyone hurt the people I care about. Superman, Shayera… nearly half the League was dead after Darkseid, the Metro Tower was gone… I needed to show them they couldn't do this to us anymore."

Linda brought her hand to her face in shock. Judging from the Flash's face, he was in a similar state himself.

"Oh my God…" she whispered, though she wasn't sure anyone even heard her.

The real Flash stepped forward. "Wait… I heard you say to Batman… I heard you say that you killed Batman…"

The Dark Flash turned to face him in anger. "I had to. He was trying to stop me. He was trying to keep her from me."

"But… she was dead. You said so."

He shook his head vehemently. "No… by getting rid of the Rogues, I was getting closer to her, I could feel it. But Batman… John… they wouldn't let me do it. They couldn't let me get to her. They said I was out of control, that I needed to be stopped before I could hurt anyone else."

"And you thought the best way to prove them wrong was to _kill _them?" Flash asked, though it had none of his usual joviality. Considering the subject matter, Linda was hardly surprised.

"Shut up! You're… twisting things! What I did was right. It _had _to be done."

Wally frowned beneath his mask. He had heard that explanation before.

From the Justice Lords.

"Stop it!" Linda yelled. She turned the dark Flash around and slapped him across the face. "You sound like a bigot!" Linda said, voicing Wally's thoughts.

Not that he had wanted _Linda _to voice them. Wally looked over at her in horror, feeling a trickle of cold sweat go down his neck as he saw the look on the dark Flash's face as he turned to face her.

"I… did it for you…"

"I didn't _ask _you to do that! And if your Linda was anything like me, she wouldn't be proud of what you've done! She'd be angry! She'd hate you!"

"No… she wouldn't. _My_ Linda wouldn't. She would thank me. She would-"

"Cram it, Walter! You're no hero, and there's no way anyone else would think so."

Wally frowned. _Walter?_

He was quickly drawn from his thoughts as he saw Walter seemingly grow to double his size in anger. He brought back his fist, and Wally charged forward shoulder first, ramming into the dark Flash as fast as he could without making a sonic boom. The darker Flash flew into the fountain, causing it to collapse on top of him. A cloud of dust billowed outward and water overflowed, washing up around Wally and Linda's feet.

Wally turned to Linda, who was standing still in shock.

"Run, stupid!"

The reporter turned and ran.

Pieces of the fountain started to shift, and Wally returned his attention to the rubble in front of him. Walter pushed off a particularly large piece of debris and stood to his full height.

"You can't stop me."

"Stop you from what? What're you gonna do, Walter? She's not even _your _Linda! She doesn't know you!"

"Shut up!"

Walter charged at his opponent, as did Wally. Both of the speedster's perceptions downshifted to adapt to their speed. The rain drops fell at half of their speed. Lightning danced across the sky at an almost leisurely pace. But to Wally and Walter, their opponents were moving as though they were ordinary humans.

As the two reached one another, Wally threw his fist forward. Walter ducked the blow and responded with an uppercut, sending Wally flying back and crashing through a park bench and into a tree. The tree made a loud snapping noise upon impact.

Wally groaned and looked up in time to see Walter coming at him again, his fists knotted together above his head to deliver a double handed blow. Wally leapt to his feet and grabbed his opponent's wrists, halting his attack. Then, using as much superspeed as he could, he drove a boot into Walter's gut. His doppelganger stumbled back and Wally followed up the attack with a right hook, causing another sonic boom to ripple through the air. The trees around them shook from the force of the noise, and the raindrops even altered their course down to the ground as the wave hit them.

The dark Flash yet out a grunt of pain as he was tossed back by the blow, landing on his back and quickly flipping to his feet before skidding to a halt.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, the two Flashes stared at each other, both frustrated by their stalemate.

Walter glanced over in the direction in which Linda had earlier fled.

Wally's eyes widened, and he charged at his dark doppelganger. But Walter had already shot off after Linda. Wally missed his target and skidded on the drenched grass and mud, struggling to get his footing before finally zooming after Walter.

Over his opponents shoulder, Wally could see Linda ahead, who had taken temporary shelter beneath a statue of… himself.

If the situation were less dire, he may have found that sort of amusingly ironic. The statue was about half the size of the one outside the Flash Museum, but that made it look no less imposing.

As he saw Walter get closer to Linda, Wally threw himself into a dead sprint, pushing his limits as he had done against Luthor and Brainiac a year before. He kicked out with his legs and flung himself forward, landing on Walter's back and causing him to stumble.

"No, Walter! Leave her alone!"

The Dark Flash grabbed him and spun him around.

"Get AWAY FROM ME!"

Walter released him, sending Wally flying through the air and ploughing through the legs of the Flash statue, landing on the road on the other side.

The towering statue began to topple onto Linda. She turned to run but Walter could see that she wouldn't be able to escape in time. Horror gripped Walter as he pushed himself as fast as his legs would allow, desperation fuelling his exhausted body.

"LINDA!"

Extending his arms, he pushed Linda out of harms way. The statue crushed him instantly.

Linda landed on the ground beside the toppled statue, her hand over her mouth in horror.

"Oh my God…"

She felt a gust of wind as the Flash was beside her in an instant.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, but… but…" Linda's words caught in her throat, and she just pointed at the rubble in front of her.

The Scarlet Speedster's face contorted into a mix of horror and desperation. "Oh… God…"

He darted forward and fell to his knees, tossing pieces of rubble away as fast as he could, and grinding to powder the chunks that were too big to lift. As he made his way through the debris, he gradually made out a dark crimson hand, parts of the costume torn away, the flesh beneath beaten and bloody. Wally quickly removed some more rubble, revealing the battered and bruised face of Walter West.

_Jesus. It's like looking in a mirror…_

Wally hoped that Linda wouldn't be able to see the similarity through the bruises and scars. He instantly felt ashamed for the selfish thought.

Walter looked up at Linda. His hand came up and Linda slowly took it, stroking it tenderly.

He smiled, and his gaze slowly made its way over to Wally, where his pale blue eyes bored into his counterparts'. He opened his mouth to speak, and Flash leaned forward to hear him.

"Take…"

His hand went limp, and his eyes closed. He almost sounded relieved as he let out his final breath and passed on.

Tears silently streamed down Linda's face. Wally looked over at her. She wasn't sobbing. She was just staring at Walter, still holding on to his hand, her tears mixing with the heavy rain. Wally put an arm around her, pulling her close. Even though he wasn't in costume, he felt as though he should be there for her.

He _wanted _to be there.

And, at that moment, he realised, he needed _her_ to be there for _him_.

He needed _her_.

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(A/N: I wrote this with the last chapter, but I decided to wait for awhile to see the reviews of the last chapter separately. So here it is, and earlier than usual!

And so… there you go. Mystery solved, more or less. I (or rather, the Atom) will go into more detail next chapter, but that should relieve those of you clamouring for the answer.

I hope it was entertaining and easy enough to understand for those of you who know nothing about the comics Walter, too. While this was nowhere near the exact events that occurred in the comics, I think it's an interesting way of showing him. Well, Ifound it interesting in _my _head, at least.

And, again, here's hoping the action didn't drag too much. I can do the dialogue pretty good, but when it comes to extended periods of describing stuff, I get the feeling I end up repeating myself too much. Or am I wrong? Were the battles too brief? Opinions!

More Carter coming next chapter, too, I promise. He's kind of taken a back seat to Wally/League stuff in the last few chapters, but I promise he'll be back in full force. Well, not full _force_, but… you know what I mean.

Anyway, review!)


	9. Step by Step

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited._

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Chapter Nine: Step by Step**_

Wally had never liked funerals. Ever since he had attended his Grandfather's funeral, he had always had an intense distaste for them. He appreciated what they were for, and how they were important, but that didn't mean he had to like them, or even endure them. He had been to a total of two funerals in his entire life, and both he had left early, not bothering with the gathering afterwards.

The fact that it was him in the coffin before him made this feeling all the more intense. Well, not _him _exactly, but he bore such a resemblance…

It was something that he certainly didn't want to think about.

"Wally?"

Flash looked over at Shayera, who was stood at the head of the coffin. "Uh… yeah?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Do you want to say anything?"

_Do I want to say anything? What the hell kind of question is that? This is me lying there. What can I say at my own funeral?_

"Uh… no, I'm…" he looked down at the coffin and ran his hand over the surface. It was cold, even through his gloves. Wally found that slightly odd. It was strange what one's mind would drift on to when they were experiencing such tragedy.

"I'm… no… thanks."

Shayera nodded solemnly and activated the Phantom Zone generator. White energy burst forth, consuming the coffin and the message that had been engraved on a golden plaque on the front:

_The Flash. His love knew no bounds. _

The energy suddenly vanished, and the coffin was gone, sent back to its native reality. Carter, stood on his right, laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"Will you be all right?"

"I've seen myself get crushed underneath a statue of me and attended my own funeral." He paused, sighing as he looked over where the coffin had once been. "But… yeah, I'll be okay."

Batman approached them, and they both turned to face him. "Do you want to do this now?"

After hesitating for a brief moment, Flash took a breath. "Yeah. I want to know what the hell happened."

The Dark Knight nodded. "Then let's go."

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Atom looked around his lab. "All right, is everyone here who should be here?"

Wally looked around the room. There was himself, Hawkman, Batman, Shayera, Speedy, Kyle Rayner, and the Atom. Flash had to wonder why the Rayner Lantern was still here, but he left it alone. John was recovering well, and had regained consciousness for all of five minutes before going to sleep again. But he _was _sleeping now, rather than lying in a coma.

And Wally couldn't be happier with that news.

"Yes, everyone's here," Shayera said impatiently. "So can we please find out what happened?"

"Right, right," Palmer said, nodding. "All right. Now, who here knows about-?"

Speedy put up his hands. "Woah, woah, doc. We're not one of your classes, all right? Just tell us."

The Atom paused for a moment. "Right you are." He turned to a blackboard, and started drawing a 'Y' shape. "Now, I've always believed that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, each one vibrating at its own unique frequency."

Wally leaned over to Shayera. "Where have I heard this before?"

"The Justice Guild's reality. You did the same thing this time, I think. Is that right?" she said, looking at Palmer inquisitively.

"More or less," he said, nodding. "When you did it last time, it was a result of the strange power source Luthor was using for his robot, and it had a more straightforward result. It caused you to vibrate at the frequency of _their _reality and take the other Leaguers with you."

"And… why not this time?" Wally asked.

"Because of the mystical properties of the Weather Wizard's wand," the Atom said, holding up the thin white stick with a red gloved hand. "While he was with Grodd's Secret Society, someone must have amped it up, or done _something _to it that made it more powerful. It also took up a lot of energy, whatever the modification was, which was why he needed such an unstable chemical like Xenothium to power it."

He pointed at Flash with the wand. "When you vibrated to get through the rubble, he struck you with lightning. And that, coupled with the mystical properties of the wand, had some kind of strange side effect in that it caused you to switch places with your counterpart from that reality."

"But why were we switching places?"

The Atom shrugged. "Maybe it was the mystical circumstances involved. They could have made the transfer unstable, which would explain your memory loss when you switched with him and his incoherent ramblings. That mystical instability would also explain the fluctuations when Hawkman or Shayera used their Nth metal weapons."

Wally frowned and looked over at Batman. "So… what did _he _do?"

The Dark Knight looked over at him. "I went to the bar you… that _he _destroyed, and found a part of his costume."

Atom nodded. "He brought that piece of costume to me, and I analysed it. I found that it was vibrating at a different frequency than the rest of our reality whenever it came into close proximity with Nth metal. And the Phantom Zone generator works by using a sample of whatever reality it's retrieving from, and finding that signature. So, Batman found an old piece of your costume, put it in the generator, and used it to pull you here from the other dimension."

"And… that's how we sent him back? By using a piece of his costume to guide the generator?" Wally asked, mildly surprised with himself that he understood all this.

"Right," Palmer replied.

Rayner raised a hand. "Okay, so that's the science of it. But why was that other Flash so hell-bent on beating the crap out of everyone?"

Flash took a deep breath. "Well, I've talked to Linda and you guys about what he said while I was… away, and this is what I've been able to put together. As far as I know, his reality is pretty much the same as ours until Darkseid's invasion. Except in his reality, Darkseid managed to kill Supes, Shayera and half the League, as well as destroying the Metro Tower. Then, sometime after that, someone called Zoom killed Linda."

Batman cocked an eyebrow. "Is this the same Professor Zoom…?"

"…That the Flash before me fought? No idea. He could've still been alive in that other reality, or it could be someone else using the name. But… either way, he killed her, and the other Flash lost it. He killed Zoom first, and then killed all the other Rogues in Central City. He… he thought that be killing them, he was getting closer to Linda."

He swallowed loudly, his throat suddenly very dry. "You," he said, nodding at Batman, "and GL tried to stop him, but he killed them too. And uh, that's pretty much when he changed places with me. He found all the Rogues he'd killed alive again, and set to work fixing it. Then he found Linda, and… well, you guys know."

"That's why he was so shocked when he saw me…" Shayera said.

"Yeah. He'd probably gone to your funeral in his own reality, and then there you were, telling him to calm down."

"Jesus," Speedy said.

Wally couldn't agree more.

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The vitals monitor let out a high pitched whine as John disconnected the pads from his chest. He grimaced at how the noise assaulted his ears.

"Woah, woah. Lie back down, sparky."

John looked over to see Wally coming into the room, dressed in full Flash regalia. He let out a low growl.

"I don't need to be here. I'm fine."

"Oh, really? Stand up for me."

The Green Lantern cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe I will."

"Okay, then."

"Okay."

John stood up. And fell over. Wally caught him and put him back on the bed.

"Damn drugs…" John said, shooting a glare at the I.V drip.

"Now, now, swearing won't make them go away. Just get back in bed, okay? Rayner's got it covered."

"Don't remind me…" John replied, clambering back into the bed.

"What? You don't like him?"

"I like him fine. It's just difficult to do the job when you're young and suffering from a hangover."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Of course not."

Wally grinned. "Kilowog drank you under the table, huh?"

"Thin ice, Wally. Thin ice."

Flash smiled and pulled up a chair next to the bed. The two were silent. Wally looked around the room, wondering how anyone could stay in a place like this for as long as John had. He could see why he was going crazy.

The clock ticked in the corner of the room.

"I, uh…"

John looked over at the speedster.

"I'm sorry."

"For what? It wasn't you. I knew it wasn't you from the start."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I know you."

A smile crept on to Wally's face. "Thanks, GL."

He shrugged, grimacing after he did so.

"He really did a number on you, huh?"

John just grunted an affirmative, rubbing a bruise on his shoulder.

"Good to know I can kick your ass when I need to, though."

The Green Lantern cocked an eyebrow. "When would you need to?"

"Just don't tick me off, and you'll never have to find out."

The two grinned. Wally pointed his thumb to the door. "I've uh, got to take care of some stuff. But I'll see you later, okay?"

"Seeing to Linda, huh?"

"Good to see I've lost none of my mystique," Wally replied, a wry smile on his face. "But yeah, I gotta go see her. Try to come up with some explanation for… everything."

"Tell me how she takes it."

"I wouldn't worry about it. You'll probably be able to hear it from here."

"She's got a temper?"

"Just a little bit," Wally mouthed, holding up his thumb and forefinger and leaving only the tiniest amount of space between them.

"Sounds like you're made for each other."

Wally was silent at that.

"I was just kidding, Wally."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I uh… I know," he said, offering a weak smile. "I'll see you later, okay?"

John nodded. "Okay."

Wally got up and made his way out. The door slid open, and Shayera met him in the doorway.

"Hey."

"Hey."

John frowned. "What is this, a tag team?"

Wally grinned. "Almost." He made his way out, and the door shut behind him, leaving John and Shayera alone in the room.

"So..." John said.

"So." Shayera made her way over and sat down. "You're feeling better?"

John nodded. "I don't think I need to be here, but those-"

"Stupid doctors?"

John sighed. "Heard this before, huh?"

"From my mouth as well as yours. You were always more vocal than I was, though."

"Yeah. You'd just threaten to slap J'onn silly if he didn't get out of your way."

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?"

"Until you realised that J'onn was stronger than you. Then you thought he was mocking you by stepping aside."

"As if he wasn't!"

The two smiled, and sat in silence for a moment. Shayera's eyes drifted up to a bandage above John's right eyebrow.

"That looks like it needs replacing."

"The doctors will do it."

"I can do it."

"You really don't have to."

"I w-" Shayera stopped herself. "I'm _going _to do it."

John seemed ready to protest, but then say the determination on Shayera's features. He huffed slightly. "Fine."

Shayera went into the drawers next to her and pulled out the first aid kit. She reached up and peeled back the corner of John's bandage, and paused for a moment.

"This is going to hurt, you know that."

"It's a bandage, Shayera. I think I can handle-"

Shayera ripped off the bandage, and John let out an amusingly high pitched yell.

"Baby."

"I'm not being a baby. You pulled that off way to fast."

Shayera pulled out the disinfectant spray for the cut above his eye. She jutted out her bottom lip. "Oh… did I hurt the big baby?"

John pointed up at her warningly. "Stop that."

"Stop what?"

He crossed his arms, and hissed as Shayera applied the disinfectant.

"Oh, come on. That did _not _hurt."

A scowl crossed John's face as she put the padding over the wound. "Of course not."

"Oh, it _did_, didn't it?This is great. Wait until I tell Wally about this."

His head whipped around. "You wouldn't dare."

"Wouldn't I?" Shayera asked dangerously, applying the medical tape over the padding. She put the supplies back in the box, and but it back in the drawer. "There. Good as new."

He reached up and rubbed the bandage tentatively. A small smile crossed his lips.

"You always were good at that."

She shrugged, her wings moving slightly as she did so. "Maybe I've just got the magic touch."

John cleared his throat. "Shayera… listen… I-"

The door opened, and Vixen stepped in, a smile on her face. "Hey, boo, I-"

She looked over at Shayera, and at the awkward look on John's face.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"

The Thanagarian smiled and stood. "Just a check-up. He's all yours." She stood and made her way out, not stopping until she heard the door slide shut behind her. She leant back on the door for a moment.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips.

"Problem?"

Shayera looked over and saw Hawkman approaching her.

"Uh, no. Nothing wrong."

Carter glanced through the window at John and Vixen. "I see."

"It's nothing, Carter."

She pushed up off the door and turned to leave, walking in a hurry.

"Shayera, wait."

She stopped on the spot, though she wasn't sure why. Footsteps approached her from behind until Carter had walked around her and was stood to her side.

"I… I realise that we won't be… together. I've made my peace with that, I truly have. But… I would like to think that we could at least learn to work together without this _wall _between us."

For a moment, he thought she might not even respond. Then, she turned to look at him. "I'd like that."

A grin rapidly took over Carter's features. "Good."

"I'll see you later."

"Uh, yes. Bright and early, and all that."

Shayera smiled. "Right." She turned and walked away, leaving Carter with a supremely satisfied smile on his face.

Joining the League certainly had its perks.

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Speedy waited impatiently for the elevator to reach the ground floor. Bad enough that there was a thunder storm over Steel City which was stopping him from teleporting in, but all the Javelins were in use, which left him driving a rental car from Metropolis to Steel City. Which wasn't a fun journey. The doors opened, and he walked quickly through the foyer, a permanent scowl on his face.

"Hey!"

He stopped and turned, frowning as he saw the source of the outcry. It was Kyle Rayner, floating towards him. He landed in front of him.

"You're going."

It wasn't a question.

"Yeah."

There was a silence.

"I still think you're a jerk," Speedy said.

Kyle nodded. "Ditto."

The two shook hands.

"See you around."

The Lantern turned and floated off, heading for the elevator. Speedy waited for a moment, then turned to the doors again.

"Hey!"

"Now what do you-?"

He turned and saw Wally stood before him, looking slightly fearful of Speedy's angered expression.

"I, uh… I just wanted to say thanks."

"For what?"

"For… believing in me. Shayera told me that you didn't back down. And, well… y'know, thanks."

He waved a dismissive hand. "You would have done the same for me, right?"

Flash grinned. "Totally."

Speedy turned, and the doors slid open in front of him. "And besides, I wasn't the only one."

The doors closed behind him.

Wally's gaze shifted slightly, thinking about who Speedy was referring to.

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He pushed the button, eliciting a buzzing noise. No response.

He pressed it again.

No response.

Wally began pressing the button at superspeed.

Still no response.

The speedster stopped his frantic button pushing for a moment, and waited.

"_Wayne Manor."_

"Hey, Jeeves. I'm here to see Bruce."

"_That can only be the very fast person, am I correct?"_

"Hit the nail on the head, Jeeves."

Alfred sighed on the other end. _"Please come in."_

There was a loud buzzing, and the gates creaked open.

_Shouldn't he have them oiled or something?_

Wally sped up the path and to the front door, where he knocked at superspeed. Alfred opened the door, a tired look on his face.

"Please come in, Master West."

Had he been anyone else, the speedster may have given pause at Alfred knowing his real name. But the fact that Batman trusted him was enough for Wally. Since the League had expanded, in fact, he had become less and less secretive about his identity. He didn't go telling everyone about it, but if they found out, he wouldn't go to great lengths to ensure their trustworthiness. Chances were, that if they were in the League, they _were_ trustworthy.

He entered the lavish living room and saw Bruce sat in one of the chairs, reading a newspaper.

_Bats? Actually **relaxing**?_

"A Master West to see you, sir," Alfred said, gesturing to Wally.

"Hey, Bats," he said, giving him a small wave. Bruce lowered his newspaper to look at him. He seemed slightly taken aback by the speedster's presence.

"…Flash."

Alfred turned and left to attend to business elsewhere.

"Uh, I was just-"

Bruce folded up his newspaper and placed it on the table in front of him. He gestured to the sofa opposite his chair.

"Oh, uh… okay," Wally said, quickly zipping onto the sofa. "I just, uh… thought I should say thanks."

Bruce cocked an eyebrow. "For what?"

"Well… everyone else kinda thought that… y'know, that I did it. And you… didn't. At all. So… thanks for that."

"You couldn't have done it. It was as simple as that. I would have done the same for anyone else."

Wally looked at the playboy billionaire sceptically. "…right. Well… anyway. Uh, thanks." He pointed to the hallway. "I'll uh… I'll just go… I've gotta try and explain all this to Linda. Got no idea how I'm going to do it, mind you, but uh…" He stood and started walking. "I'll see you later, 'kay?"

"Just a minute."

An eyebrow rose as Wally turned to face Bruce. The millionaire stood and walked over to a very expensive looking desk with only one drawer that took up the entire underside of the desk. Bruce pulled out a velvet case and took it over to Wally.

"_This _might help you explain the situation," he said, opening it to reveal a necklace that looked more expensive than anything Wally could afford.

"I, uh… don't know what to…" He smiled and took the case gingerly. "Thanks, Bats."

The Dark Knight pointed a finger at him. "If you try and hug me, I _will _kill you."

"No problem, no problem," the red headed speedster replied, putting up his hands defensively. "I'll uh… see you later."

Bruce nodded, and Wally turned and left, enraptured with the necklace.

Slowly, Batman turned to get back to his newspaper, when a sudden gust of wind rustled the paper slightly. Bruce felt somethinghug him _very _quickly, and then it was gone.

"Thanks, Bats!" he heard in the distance.

Alfred tried not to smile _too _much as he brought his Master his tea.

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"…and that's why I've been away for the past few days."

Wally's boss cocked an eyebrow, and then looked over at Carter.

"And youcan vouch for all of this?"

Carter smiled his 'Official Museum Curator' smile. "Of course. It was completely my fault. I thought he was involved when he wasn't, and had to bring him over to Midway, as you can imagine. Again, I apologise."

The blonde man in the lab coat looked between the two for a moment, before allowing his easy smile to take over again.

"Well, I've got no reason not to trust you, Wally. Just don't go interfering with Midway Museum business again," he said, still smiling.

"Can do," Wally replied, giving him a small salute. His boss shook hands with Carter before turning and opening the door to the lab, disappearing inside.

After waiting for him to get out of earshot, Wally turned to Carter.

"That was great! I told you this would work!"

His larger companion frowned. "I still didn't like lying to him."

"No-one likes lying. But, y'know, we've gotta do it sometimes. Comes with the territory, y'know?"

"It just seems like a slippery slope. One minute you're lying to protect your identity, the next you're-"

"-going on a rampage and killing other heroes?"

Carter put his hands in his jacket pockets. "That isn't what I meant."

"I know." He paused. "Makes me wonder, though. Would I go the same way… if…?"

He placed a heavy hand on Wally's shoulder. "But you won't. You said it yourself, and your friends said it too; it isn't in you. No matter what happens, you are still _you_, and no personal tragedy can change that. You're too strong to be changed."

"Yeah, I'm sure Walter thought that too…" Wally mumbled, looking away.

"You can't spend all your time second guessing yourself. If you do, you won't be able to be a hero anymore. And I don't think you want that."

"No, I don't."

Carter nodded. "All right, then. It's a moot point, anyway. This 'Zoom' character is dead in this reality, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but those guys always find a way to come back. And nothing's stopping some other guy from slapping on the costume and calling himself Zoom."

"I suppose, but that doesn't-"

"…and this is the forensics lab," a voice interrupted them. Carter turned to see Officers Morillo and Chyre guiding a man with a cane down the corridor.

"Hey, West," Chyre grunted, his hulking form almost overshadowing Carter.

Almost.

In the brief few days he had been back, Wally had made it a point to get to know the two officers of the Department for Metahuman Hostility, both in and out of costume. So far, they had been getting along well.

Wally offered a small wave. "Hey guys. What're you up to?"

Morillo pointed to their guest. "Showing around the new addition to the DMH. Wally West, meet Hunter Zolomon, our new Rogue profiler."

Wally cocked an eyebrow.

_Profiler? I guess I've got someone else here to help out._

He extended his hand. The man was roughly his age, perhaps a little older, and had short cropped brown hair. From the way Zolomon held his cane, Wally could tell it was for an injury, and not to project some kind of upper class image. He had an honesty in his eyes that Wally instantly liked.

"Welcome aboard."

"It's good to be here," he said, smiling back.

"And who's this?" Chyre asked, his stance almost challenging Carter.

Wally waved over in his direction. "This is a buddy of mine. Everybody, Carter Hall. Carter Hall, this is Jared Morillo, Fred Chyre and… Hunter Zolomon."

Carter gave a nod of greeting to each one. "It's nice to meet you. But Wally, I think we should be getting along to our next stop."

"Right you are. Nice seeing you guys." He looked over at Hunter. "And good to meet you."

Zolomon nodded. "You too."

Carter and Wally made their way down the hall. The speedster nudged his friend in the ribs.

"That lie was pretty damn seamless, buddy."

"But… it wasn't a lie. You _do _need to see Linda, don't you?"

Wally sighed. "Yeah. I just wish I didn't."

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Linda smiled as he entered the hospital room. Although Wally hadn't known it at the time, Walter had broken some of her ribs when he had shoved her out of the way of the falling statue. Wally had been predictably over-concerned. He took a tentative seat next to her bed.

"Hey," he said gently.

"Hi."

"I heard about what happened. I'm so sorry, Linda."

She gave him a look that made him feel more than slightly stupid. "Wally. How is any of this your fault? Seriously, that's like me taking credit for the Apokolips invasion."

Wally grinned. "I guess…"

"Damn right. Now, you're supposed to be making _me _feel better. So go ahead."

"Thank you, your highness. First, I present you with a gift from your suitor, Wallace West."

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the velvet case. Linda sceptically took it and slowly opened it. Her eyes lit up when she saw what was inside.

"Ho…kay." She looked over at him. "How the hell can you afford this?"

"Thank you for subtly complimenting my job, Ms Park. However, the how's and wherefore's are not for you to worry about. Just… enjoy."

She nodded. "Now _that_ I can do."

Wally frowned. "Aren't you uh… gonna try it on?"

"In a hospital gown?"

Wally opened his mouth, and then shut it again. "Touché. So…" he said, taking her hands in his. "What do you want to do when you get out?"

"Have a beer."

He grinned. "After that."

"I guess… go somewhere quiet and just get over everything that happened."

"Sounds nice."

"Oh, you're not coming."

Wally's face fell.

"I'm kidding, you dork."

Wally's face lit up.

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Linda almost bolted from her bed when the Flash came into her room. He had only just left as Wally West, with the promise that he would call her later. And he sort of was.

Sort of.

"Hi."

"Um… hi."

Wally paused. "I just came to see how you were doing. And say sorry."

"Apologise? For what?"

"For putting you in danger."

"That's, uh… no problem."

He nodded. "Right." He paused again. "I'll just… let myself out."

As he turned to go, Linda reached out. "Wait."

His head came around to face her. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering… why was he after me? I mean, he's an alternate version of you, right? And he married me. Well, the other me. And… well… I was wondering whether that was… y'know…"

Wally was silent. He chewed his bottom lip furiously for a moment. He zipped over to the door and locked it, then shot back over to her bed.

Then he pulled back his mask.

Linda's eyes widened, and her hand instantly went to her mouth.

"Oh my God… Wally?"

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(A/N: Cliff-hanger city in this fic, huh? There's another chapter coming up in the form of an epilogue, so don't cross this story off just yet.

Here's hoping my explanation for the whole Wally/Walter switcheroo made sense. If it didn't, tell me, and I'll try to explain it as best I can in a PM.

I think I may have gone a little but overboard with the John/Shayera scene (it felt a bit out of place when I read it again – like a one-shot, really), but I just wanted to remind everyone that those two are still in the background, and still dancing around each other. Or at least, John is. It's just a matter of time until they do get together, and I wanted to insert a sense that they are getting there.

Besides, I liked writing the Wally/John buddy bit. Wanted some reconciliation there considering the argument they had before he was knocked out of the story.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the Speedy dynamic. The way it ended… it's making his presence in the story a little pointless other than for the 'OMG Teen Titans crossover' value.

As for Rayner, I'm planning on doing another story that _sort of _continues on from this. While it's not a direct sequel, Rayner is going to be the GL in it while John recovers. It'll also feature Nightwing and Batgirl, for you Bat-family fans. And Flash, too (duh). Although by this point, I suppose it's a given with my JLU stories that Wally will be involved somehow.

That's awhile off, though.

Nothing much to say about the Bruce scene. I will defend the superspeed hug until my dying breath, though.

And did anyone get my INCREDIBLY SUBTLE Zoom hint? Not saying I'll use him in a story, mind, but I just wanted to put him in there for my inner nerd. And my outer nerd, come to think of it.

Anyway, enough of my near-incoherent ramblings. Review!)


	10. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I don't own _Justice League Unlimited_

_**Gut Feeling**_

_**Epilogue**_

J'onn allowed a small quirk of a smile as his orange eyes lit up, indicating his telepathic skills at work.

Carter hadn't even batted an eyelid this time.

Since the archaeologist had started his sessions with J'onn, he had been unnerved by the Martian's telepathic skills, although it wasn't the mind reading aspect, as it usually was with others. It was just the way his eyes lit up. For one who had such a darkness lurking on a subconscious level, Carter was remarkably honest and unguarded. J'onn had found nothing in his mind that Carter himself hadn't told him. J'onn had found that level of honesty in few.

Wally was one of those few.

Hence the smile.

Carter cocked a curious eyebrow, his face un-obscured by his helmet, which actually possessed properties that prevented telepathic probes, at least on a mild level. If J'onn tried hard enough, he would be able to break through the shielding, but that would be detrimental to the purpose of these sessions.

The glow in J'onn's eyes faded, and the smile that had earlier been almost imperceptible grew.

"Pretty good," he said, enjoying the fact that Carter didn't feel strange at J'onn's new manner of speech.

All of his previous team-mates – _all _of them – had had some kind of reaction to his new voice. Whether it was Batman's quirked eyebrow or Superman's baffled expression, J'onn had learnt to get used to the reactions. Occasionally, he would throw in a word that he wouldn't usually use to further befuddle them. The other day, he had called the Watchtower computer a 'pile of crap'.

J'onn had somewhat enjoyed Stargirl's reaction to that.

But Hawkman had no preconceptions about how J'onn should speak or behave. It was quite a liberating experience.

"The darker tendencies that created Shadow Thief are all but gone."

"Are you sure?" Carter asked, leaning forward, his hands knotted together anxiously.

J'onn nodded. "As of now, you're the same as all of us. The darkness is still there, but it's up to you whether to let it out or not." A half smile crossed his face. "Or _when _to, I suppose."

"So… there's no chance of the Shadow Thief coming back?"

The Martian shrugged. "We've looked over the Absorbacron, but not knowing much about ancient Thanagarian technology, there's no way to know. Unless you try and recreate the incident which gave birth to Shadow Thief in the first place, I don't think he'll present you with a problem anymore."

"But… _can _he come back?"

A thoughtful look crossed J'onn's face as he let out a deep breath. "There isn't much more I can do for you, except to just say be careful. Perhaps, somewhere down the line, we'll find out more about how exactly Shadow Thief was created. Until then, don't worry about it to the point where you let it dominate every aspect of your life." J'onn smiled. "Like I said, you're just like the rest of us now."

Carter leant back in his chair and ran a hand through his jet black hair. "Here's hoping I can handle it," he said.

J'onn cocked an eyebrow. "Was that a joke?"

"…Yes."

He smiled. "You're recovering well."

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He was late.

Not that that surprised Carter in the least. Wally had never been particularly prompt since the first day they had met, and no part of him expected him to start now.

Carter had surmised that it was some kind of side effect to his being the Fastest Man Alive. He must think that because he's so fast, he has the luxury to wait around until about thirty seconds before whatever appointment he has. Of course, he would always get sidetracked on the way to said appointment, be it by a crime or by hunger.

Carter sighed and looked at his wristwatch. While Wally had initially insisted they meet in costume for their weekly lunch appointments in Central City Park, Carter had quickly become tired of it from the first time, since Wally was basically wearing one piece of clothing while he had his wings, helmet and mace to contend with. Or axe, depending on which one he had taken to work with him.

And so, there he was, sat on the park bench where they had first talked all those weeks ago wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and some walking boots.

Carter had never really been one to know what to wear, so he stuck with the basics. It was something Wally had vowed to help him with at some point, though Carter felt a certain amount of dread at what fashion statements the speedster had planned for him. He had even offered to help him with 'The _Ladies'_ as Wally had put it. Though Carter really wasn't too troubled in that area. At least, he didn't think he was.

And he wasn't too convinced of the Flash's ability to attract the opposite sex, in any case.

"Hey," an exhausted voice said behind him, and Carter turned to see Wally collapsing on to the bench.

"Tough day?" Carter asked.

"Little bit," he sighed, tossing over Carter's lunch. From the get-go, they had decided to take turns buying each other lunch and bringing it to the bench. Since this was the first week of their official bench meetings, Carter hadn't been sure what to expect.

"What is it?" he said, inspecting the packaging.

"It's a 'Chicken Salsa Wrap'. Oh, and Cherry Coke," he said, tossing over the can.

Carter caught the can and laid it next to his foot on the ground. "And… what's a 'Chicken Salsa Wrap'?" he asked, reading from the label.

"You're kidding, right?"

Carter just shook his head, and Wally sighed.

"You like Mexican food?"

"I've never tried."

"Well then… there you go. It's not _exactly _a proper chicken fajita, but still. Close enough."

"… Fajita?"

"Just eat. It's good."

Carter shrugged and unwrapped his lunch. After a brief pause, he took a bite. He looked over at Wally as he munched.

"This _is_ quite good."

"Told you," Wally said, a mouthful of his own Chicken Salsa Wrap muffling his words slightly.

"So," Carter began, placing the wrap on his lap and reaching for his coke. "How's Linda? Did you tell her?"

Wally froze in mid-munch. "Yeah, I told her." The speedster resumed chewing.

"How did she take it?"

His companion swallowed as he shrugged. "Better than I thought."

"Oh, good?"

Laughter erupted from Wally, and Carter almost jumped slightly at the suddenness of it.

"No, not good," Wally said between chuckles, shaking his head. "Better than I thought, but uh…" His face suddenly became serious, as though remembering something horrific. "…no, not good."

"What are you going to do?"

He sighed. "I don't know. I think I've done enough. It's up to her now, I guess." Wally turned to look at Carter. "What do _you _think I should do?"

"Um…" Carter swallowed a mouthful of wrap. "Well, like you said, there's not much you _can _do, except give her some space. If the bond between you is as strong as you've indicated, she should come back to you."

Wally grinned slowly. "You're just a big old romantic at heart, aren't ya?"

Carter smiled. "If I am, you definitely are," he said, taking another bite.

"I guess so…"

Flash looked forward at the remaining pieces of the fountain that had been destroyed during his battle with… himself.

Wally was still having trouble with that.

"So. How's stuff with Shayera?"

"It's all right. Better than before, but nothing…"

"…that you're hoping for."

The faux-Thanagarian turned to the speedster to protest, but then stopped himself, sighing. "That transparent, am I?"

Wally shrugged. "It's not hard to spot when you've gone through it."

"Really? You and Shayera…?"

The Flash scrunched up his face in disgust. "Oh God no! I mean… sure, I liked her, uh… _attributes_," he said, grinning at Carter's slight blush, "but after the first year or so… that kinda went away. I was talking about Linda."

"Oh. I see."

"Yeah." Wally's grin grew. "Besides, I hear you've got other prospects anyway."

"You… what?"

"Dr Light?" Wally wiggled his eyebrows. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I… um… don't know what you mean."

This just made the speedster grin more inanely. "Right."

"I _really _don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh huh."

"What? I don't."

"And I believe you," Wally said, his voice filled with mock defensiveness.

Carter groaned and shook his head. "I can see why Green Lantern gets so annoyed with you."

"Aw… has GL been talking about me?"

"I think 'grumbling' better describes it. Something to do with a cat called… Johnny?"

The speedster's grin reached epic proportions before he burst out laughing. "Yeah… I'll have to tell you about that sometime." He leaned towards Carter slightly. "You'll have to keep it a secret, of course."

"Actually, I got the feeling that quite a few people knew what he was talking about. Especially Green Arrow."

Wally shrugged. "Yeah, but GA's one of my main accomplices."

"'Accomplices'?

"Yeah, y'know. I can't take care of this stuff by myself. I could when the League was just seven guys, but when we've got like sixty plus members… let's just say I need some help here and there."

"I… see. And who are your other accomplices?"

Wally waggled a finger in front of Carter. "Ah-ah-ah. Before you learn about that stuff, you need to prove yourself worthy."

Carter shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "And… what would that entail?"

Flash shrugged. "Dunno yet. You like Abbot and Costello?"

"Well I've never really, uh-"

"The Marx Brothers?"

"I don't-"

"Monty Python?"

"Yes, I have seen that."

"Which one?"

"Um… the… funny one?"

"Oh, dude, come on! Give me something!"

Carter shrugged. "I just… haven't seen that many old comedies."

"Oh, so you like some of the newer stuff?"

"Well, I…"

Wally melodramatically placed a hand on Carter's shoulder. "I've got a lot to teach you." His communicator beeped in his pocket, and Wally pulled it out, the earpiece attached to his cell phone to help him better blend into crowded areas. "Yeah?"

Superman's voice came through. _"Wally, get over here. We've got a mission."_

"Oh come on, I'm a lunch break!"

"_This can't wait."_

"Fine," Flash huffed. "Be right there." He stood and looked over at Carter. "Sorry, dude. Duty calls."

"Same time next week?"

Wally pointed at Carter and winked. "You know it."

After a quick check to see if anyone was watching, Wally zoomed away, leaving Carter to his lunch. He looked down at the wrap and took another bite.

He'd have to try some more Mexican food sometime.

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It was almost a strange experience, returning to Midway City. Having gotten used to the sunny disposition of the people of Central City, it had almost given him shell shock when someone yelled at him and called him a filthy hawk. Carter had just smiled and waved at the man, which had only seemed to infuriate him further.

Carter looked down at the city as he floated overhead. So far, he had stopped one car-jacking and a jewellery store theft. Each time, the innocent parties involved had been just as frightened of him as the criminals he had apprehended.

Carter suddenly stopped in his tracks as something bright yellow flickered in his peripheral vision. Looking over, he saw a yellow balloon floating up into the sky next to him. With a beat of his wings, he went over to it and grabbed it by the string which dangled from the bottom. He looked down, and, using his Nth metal enhanced vision, he searched for where the balloon had come from.

He smiled as he found what he was looking for.

With another beat of his wings, he was shooting down to the ground. As he approached the street, he slowed his descent, and floated gracefully to the sidewalk. There, a child of about four or five was crying, lamenting the loss of her yellow balloon, while her mother and father tried to console her on her loss.

Her crying stopped as she saw Hawkman approaching. She just looked amazed. With a friendly smile, he handed over the balloon, which she cautiously took.

The father, slightly taken aback by Carter's sudden entrance, just nodded. "Um… thank you."

"It was no problem, really. I hope I'll see you around." He looked down at the girl. "And you be sure to take better care of your balloons," he advised, grinning.

She nodded vehemently, smiling.

The mother smiled also. "Thank you."

Carter leapt into the air, and with an almighty beat of his wings, he was away again, shooting off into the air.

The girl looked at her amazed parents. "Was that an angel?"

"I… suppose…" the father responded, his gaze on Hawkman as he disappeared into the horizon. He and his wife turned to each other, both looking as shocked as their partner.

Carter was grinning for the rest of the day.

And nothing, not the traffic jams on the way to the Museum, not the angry protests of incensed citizens, or the slightly cautious looks of the police that talked to him could remove it.

After that, Hawkman had the feeling that things could only get better.

Because as far as Carter was concerned, one step in the right direction was better than none at all.

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The End.

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(A/N: I felt that since Wally had gotten the lion's share of closure last chapter, Carter deserved some in the final chapter, particularly seeing as he was the first character to appear in the story.

I really liked J'onn's 'new' voice in 'Destroyer', and I thought it'd be enjoyable to show that here. Tell me if you think I was a bit off-base with the dialogue.

Wally and Carter eating Chicken Salsa Wraps… don't ask me where that came from. I think that's just my innate love for Mexican food seeping into the story.

And Superman's mention at the end of the conversation is a little insinuation to another story I've got in mind at some point... far… _far… _in the future. I think it may just be the _Superman Returns_ hype getting to me, though, so I'll see if the urge to write a Wally/Clark story stays once the film has come and gone.

I felt the yellow balloon thing, while necessary, _may _have been a bit cheesy, but what the hey. The electric guitar bits in _Justice League Unlimited _are cheesy, but I still love 'em.

Anyway, I'd just like to thank the following reviewers (and is _this _gonna be a long list – as of writing this, 105 reviews. That's the most I've had for any of my stories!):

Doza: Reviews from fellow writers are always appreciated, and yours are no exception. Here's hoping for an update on _Six Sharp Claws and a Mister Pointy_.

Lainearth: Hoped you enjoyed this Flash fic, and thanks for you review!

Riana1: Of _course _I'm going to thank you. As I've said in my review replies, your positive feedback inflated an already _way _to big ego. Hope to see you on board for my other stories!

Sokerfreek922: Here's hoping you eventually enjoyed reading Hawkman as much as I enjoyed writing him. And regarding Wally revealing his identity to Linda - I think you _might_ have enjoyed the ending of Chapter 9…

Eelectric-diva-Nina: I can't help but agree with your last review. Nerds to indeed rule.

ChunkyMunky241: Really, what can I say? Thanks for you reviews. They're always well thought out, honest, and very much appreciated. Here's hoping I can return the favour at some point with some reviews of my own (hint, hint) :P.

Lumberjane: Thanks for the support!

Balletangel19: Nice to see a fellow Flash author putting in his two cents. Thanks for reviewing.

Spin-Firestorm: Thanks for reviewing!

Lady Jaye1: I share your pain concerning Linda's misrepresentation in 'Flash and Substance'. I can guess why they didn't make her like she is in the comics (too Lois Lane-like, I suppose), but that doesn't mean I have to like it, does it?  Anyway, thanks for your reviews.

Kj: While I didn't get Nightwing into the story, I got Speedy in there, so here's hoping your enjoyed that. Nightwing will _definitely _absolutely positively be in my other story, 'Send Me on My Way', though (when I eventually get around to updating it :P). Thanks for reviewing.

Hhgbh: As always, your input is enjoyed and appreciated. I hope to see you on my other stories, too (although you already seem to be there!). Thanks for your reviews.

Makai Senki Disgaea: I hope you enjoyed the conclusion. Thanks for reviewing!

Mist: Thanks for your reviews!

Proponent of EVO: Thanks for your reviews, and here's subtly poking you for some updates on some of your Superman related stories (maybe you'll get bitten by the _Superman Returns _bug too, eh?).

Rogueandkurt: Judging from your username, you may be interested that I'm thinking of doing an _X-Men: Evolution _story about Cyclops and his dad. Just an idea at this point, but I thought you _might _be interested. Thanks for your reviews!

Canis Black: Thanks for your comics knowledge. I'm pretty ignorant of them except for Geoff Johns' run and my 'The Return of Barry Allen' graphic novel. Thanks again!

Shay Bo Bay: Thanks for your reviews, and your… unique sense of humour. Thanks again!

Booboaba: I hope you were satisfied with the conclusion! Thanks for reviewing.

KF fan: Your _Teen Titans _Kid Flash stories are something else, and I'm glad that you enjoyed this story and reviewed. P.S: Thanks for the mention in your Profile – very much appreciated.

El Varon: Thanks for reviewing. I've yet to see 'Daddy Day Care', but I'm sure I will at some point if some kid is dressed as the Flash in it.

Caliente: Glad you enjoyed Walter's addition. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out too, especially the more pitiable side of his character. When I can make a psycho murderer version of the Flash an object of pity, then I know I've done something right. Thanks for the reviews!

Eiju: Well, it wasn't Darkseid, but I hope you enjoyed the explanation anyway. Thanks for reviewing!

Jerico Cacaw: Good to see you liked the Flash on Flash fight. I had a hell of a time thinking it out in my head, but what ended up coming out was pretty good, I think. Thanks for reviewing!

Bob: Thanks for reviewing, and for using such a great name to do it.

Gambit01V2: It's pretty much a safe bet I'll be using Zoom in a future story. Maybe the Flash/Superman story I talked about earlier… hmm… Anyway, thanks for the review!

Little Red Ravenhood: Yeah, I put Wally through hell in this story, didn't I? 'Send Me on My Way' is a bit more of a return to the light-hearted Flash from the show, so maybe you'll enjoy that too. Thanks for reviewing.

Kayli: I enjoyed the hug threat too, as well as Wally ignoring it and hugging him anyway. Thanks for the review!

Thanks to the 'World's Finest Online' website, for information on Hawkman and Weather Wizard.

Thanks to 'The Watchtower' website for information on League members.

Thanks to the 'Those Who Ride the Lightning' website for information on Walter West. And for telling me that Wally's middle name is Rudolph. Oh, if only GL and Shayera knew…

Thanks to DC Comics and Warner Brothers for these great characters and fantastic shows. And to Geoff Johns as well, who's take on the Flash (and especially the Weather Wizard) inspired much of this story.

And, of course, thanks to all you guys for reading and reviewing!

Speaking of which… review!

Thanks for reading.)


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